Last weekend was Kinross's turn to host the monthly Midland District junior tournament. There was a huge turnout from the club: we put out three U10 teams, and two at U12, plus one at U14. There were lots of competitive debuts.
Thanks to everyone who helped run the show - officials, caterers, supporters, coaches. Where would we be without you?
The bake sale raised over £300 for club funds.
Some pics of the U14s from Tricia Macpherson are below - excellent as always.
We are pleased to announce that Kinross Astro, the charity that owns and operates our pitch in Kinross, has been awarded £1000 by Awards for All Scotland. This will go towards the purchase of two pairs of foldaway goals. No more heaving the match goals around every time you want to do a new drill!
It will be great for the Kobras and we also hope the availability of extra goals will encourage new users of the pitch. The goals should be with us in a couple of weeks.
After training with the men for all of last season, four Kobras had their first competitive games for the Mens 2s last weekend, and acquitted themselves very well. Lots to learn, but lots to look forward too as well. Well done to Matthew and Lewis Bentall, Ben Volland (pics below) and to Douglas Young (an international man of mystery who is never knowingly photographed).
Congratulations to everyone who successfully completed the hockey leaders course at KAS today:
It was long hard day, but hopefully it was worth it in the end. The club is now officially awash with qualified coaches.
The first Kobras tournament of the new season was hosted by Dundee Wanderers at Dalnacraig. The U12s in particular looked very strong.
At some point the rain gods will stop smiling on us for club day and we'll have a wash out. But 2017 was once again completely idyllic, with glorious weather, lots of kids having fun, haute cuisine burgers, a completely bonkers parents and kids game, and a good run around for everyone else.
Thanks to everyone who baked, made sandwiches, set up, supervised, organised, provided witty comments from the sidelines or just turned up to watch.
Oh yes, and £400-odd raised for club funds.
The video and pics below give a sense of the occasion.
Fraser Henry was a mascot at the final of the Eurohockey Mens II competition in Glasgow the other day.
He seems to have brought the Bluesticks some luck, as they came away with the gold medal at the end of the day, beating Wales 2-1.
Earlier in the week, Andrew Clark fulfilled the mascot's role on the opening day of the tournament.
A few days ago, Karen from the L2s brought her mum down to the KAS pitch to celebrate her 80th birthday. Morag, a former hockey captain at Morrison's Academy, had never played on astro before, and thought it would be fun to try it out. It certainly looks like the old magic is still there.
A small donation came the club's way in the process, so many thanks for that. Hope you enjoyed the visit!
More news on the pitch front. The KAS pitch has now been officially certified as a "National" standard pitch by the FIH. We're hoping that this will help bring in bookings from further afield.
Congratulations to Kinross Astro, the Muirs on their new FIH National certified hockey field @EnglandHockey @TenCateGrass @TigerTurfUK pic.twitter.com/VQJXbZKxhA
— FIH Hockey Academy (@FIH_Academy) July 10, 2017
Our pitch contractor Ecosse Sports was back in Kinross last week to take some drone pictures of the pitch for their promotional material. Doesn't she look nice?
The Kobras were in Dundee at the weekend for the end-of-season Harris tournament. Lots of fun was had, and there were some fighting performances. The U10s were missing some key players, but played some slick hockey anyway and stood up to everything the opposition threw at them, despite giving away a foot in height to some members of other teams! Meanwhile the U12s had been persuaded that bashing the ball down the middle of the park was not a good tactic, and started to pass the ball about nicely at times. In the last game, certain members of the team decided to put on a show, all the stops came out, and we had a demonstration of 3D skills. I'm not sure whether this was more disconcerting for the opposition or the coaches.
Roll on the first tournament of the new season, in St Andrews at the end of July.
Last night saw the annual Korinthians versus L2s match. The Ladies were something of a scratch team, with key players absent and the line-up featuring three Kobras, who were getting their first experience of adult hockey. Meanwhile the Korinthians had got themselves a couple of recruits in defence who looked curiously similar to players from the L1s.
In the end, the Korinthians pipped it 2:1 in a very entertaining game, featuring some slick hockey from both sides. Congratulations to everyone who took part, and particularly to the Kobras Eilidh, Mhairi and Nikki who excelled themselves.
