Men's Hockey Club Centenary 1908-2008
 Thank you to all members who attended our celebration weekend in June 2008. It was a fantastic start to our centenary season and great to see players and officials past and present gathering together to celebrate our 100 years of hockey in style. David White has produced photographs of the Centenary Ball and they can be viewed / purchased via his website www.djwhitephotography.com Centenary Celebrations Colour Booklet - order your copy  Copies of a 68 page full colour ‘History of Belper Hockey Club’ Centenary booklet compiled by John Litchfield are now available. To order your booklet (price £10 if collected or £11 if you would like a copy posted) email John at j.d.litchfield@tinyworld.co.uk Belper Men's Hockey Club Centenary 1908-2008 If you are a past member reading this we would love to re-establish contact with yourself, and add any stories, recollections and photographs you wish to share. Please email to Ian Lane at ian@milldesign.connectadsl.co.uk or John Litchfield at j.d.litchfield@tinyworld.co.uk Belper Hockey Club Centenary Celebration weekend
It was a tremendous weekend (21st and 22nd June, 2008) of festivities as Belper Men's Hockey Club celebrated 100 years of hockey. Veteran, mixed, junior and elite hockey games were played and a Centenary Ball held at Derby Conference Centre on the Saturday night with over 230 guests attending. Many thanks to all organisers and helpers with a special thanks to Nick and Wendy Morris for their hard work and planning that made the weekend such a huge success.  Trevor Howson - Centenary Memories... Extract from email sent to Ian Lane from Trevor Howson (Belper Men 1XI player during the 1970's) A voice from your past, quite a distant one now! Firstly congratulations on the "BHC 100 Years of Hockey" book - a very professional high quality production I thought and congratulations too to John Litch on compiling it - quite an undertaking - and as a retired history teacher, I compliment him on keeping it interesting with a lot of personal anecdotes and not merely a load of statistics. Inevitably I concentrated most closely on the years when I played for Belper. And it made me start sifting through the old grey matter for ancient memories. The Derby School connection wasn't mentioned. I first started playing hockey in the Lower 5th, today's Year 10, when I was 14 in 1961. It wasn't too long before I was selected for the school team and among the teams we played against was BHC 2nd team. I'm not sure who made the initial contact to the school (Mr Guy - Latin - was the hockey master - was he before your time?) but I remember that Belper were short of players and made a request for emergency reserves to the school. I remember being picked up at the Broadway on Duffield Road by Alan Holmes (I think) for 2nd team matches, often having played for the School in the morning - God was I fit then! Thus began my association with Belper which I was proud to see continue when Peter, yourself and Mick Kirk played during my short time at Derby School as a teacher. The boring thing about historians is their desire for accuracy, so there are one or two points I'd like to correct. John Litch has already apologised to me for marrying me off to Alan Holmes' daughter on page 16, but there's also a mistake on the photo above that. I needed to get out a magnifying glass to be sure but the "...Catchpole?" on the extreme right is none other than a very young me! I remember receiving a request to go to Bournemouth as the Nailers were short of players. There was no way my parents could afford to pay for a long weekend in a hotel, (I'd never stayed in a hotel before!) so I'm pretty sure that David Flew picked up the tab, and drove me there and back - if the date's correct I was 15. No wonder I always thought what a wonderful set-up Belper was and wouldn't have anything to do with Derby HC, even though they played only a few minutes from where I lived in Chaddesden. Other memories have surfaced. Instead of just a bit of pre-season training we started to hire the Lancaster Sports Centre in Derby for fitness training and 5-a-side, before repairing to the Seven Stars for a beer and selection committee meetings - I think I was vice-captain and Nailer's secretary about that time. And reading about the showers in the old wooden pavilion reminds me that John Litchfield was always complaining about someone using his shampoo and threatening to fill the bottle with Duckham's oil instead! The silly things your memory throws back at you! I've really enjoyed the book and it's great to see how the club has blossomed. Please remember me to your brother and others at the club from my time. Kind regards, Trevor Howson. Following this initial email Trevor has kindly sent the photograph above taken at the Bournemouth Festival in 1973 - it's a wonderful picture with many characters on show! Below are some further comments from Trevor: What to say about the Nailers? What a great institution, bringing together all ages and abilities within the club to play social but competitive fixtures near and far on Sundays – last-minute cry-offs through injury or a heavy night before just part of the joy of being Nailers’ Secretary, particularly when it was Alderley Edge away! And each Easter off to the Bournemouth Festival (not forgetting Fordingbridge). This was Bournemouth 1973, I believe, my last full year as a Belper player. You’ll notice Tony Ramsden modelling the experimental navy and red striped Nailers socks and Ron Haspel equipped as ever with his trusty English hockey stick. Does the Nailers’ nail still exist I wonder? I can’t remember everyone’s name, but I’m sure you’ll be able to fill in the gaps. Back row: Richard Harvey, ? , Bill Wilson, Phil Palfreyman, Rob Lowe, Roger Litchfield, David Llewellyn, Rick Fox, Trevor Howson Front row: Ron Haspel, Tony Ramsden, Steve Craggs, Geoff Hallsworth, David Jury, Rob Hives.  June 1985 - Beeston 6's - Mickey Davis, Lesley Dawson, Mickey Davis, Pete Wrigley, Alan Dawson, Andy Beeston, Mick Kirk Belper Men Centenary 2008 - email received from Mickey Davis Hello Ian, with a bit of spare time on my day off to prepare for Christmas, I thought I would see if my old club had a website. I was delighted to see pictures of faces from the past. This prompted a flood of marvellous memories. I knew that the club had progressed well (since I left!), having kept up to date via the Belper News. It's good to see a thriving club providing excellent opportunities for youngsters, physically and socially. I found my old trophies, relegated to the bottom drawer, in the spare room. Rolls Royce Sevens Runners Up 1984, Rolls Royce Sevens Winners 1985, Carillon Sevens Winners 1985, John Player 6's Runners Up 1986, Rolls Royce Sevens Winners 1986. Some of my fond memories are as follows: English teacher at Belper High School, Mr Francis (Paul I think), encouraged me to join the club. What a brilliant man. Hockey = football with weapons! Wow, beer after games - out of a watering can! Messrs Elliott and Sawyer getting me drunk on 6 pints of Bass, after Tuesday night training. I was only 16 and my Mum made me go to school the next day! Ron Haspel's old England sticks. Showers on view from the bar. JB's Dennis the menace transit van. When Al Dawson needed a pee, coming back up the A38 after a game, JB wouldn't stop. So, we held Al horizontal up against an open side window. We didn't have the best kit in those days - stripy socks with holes in, any old shorts and navy shirts. When we turned up at Nuneaton they had immaculate kit. However, ours was the immaculate game. We stuffed 5 goals past them and to celebrate we took home a trophy - one of their super shirts. You were our moral guide and as such returned their missing shirt. We had a lot of fun and we were damn good at hockey as well. I may still hold the record for a meteoric rise through the teams. I went from 5th's to 1st's in consecutive weeks. The 1st team game was a cup game against Sheffield Bankers, which we won 8:0, I think. Bournemouth Easter Festival. Beer at half time! One poorly morning, I got myself ready only to be told that they would find someone else. I must have looked bad! One year I was kindly taken to Bournemouth by xxxx xxxxx. It was a long journey made longer by the fact that he didn't even have a radio! You will be pleased to know that I haven't turned into an alcoholic, following my BHC years. I retired from hockey at the ripe old age of 30, having played for Preston and Deeside Ramblers. My main hobby is now golf, thanks to Al Dawson, God rest his soul, who gave me my first set of clubs. I will have a look in some more bottom drawers and see if I can find any photo's for the centenary. I hope you are well Ian. Send my regards to Kirky, if you still see him. You may remember me as Mick or Mickey Davis. (I became a "Mike" around about the time I met my wife Gill, nearly 19 years ago.) Belper Men Centenary 2008 - email received from Peter Wrigley
Much like Mickey Davis I just happened to look on the Belper HC website, partly out of curiosity to see how the club is faring this season but also to see whether any centenary celebrations were planned. It was brilliant to see his message on there – loads of memories came flooding back! I had remembered the centenary date as I was, until a couple of years ago, the proud owner of a glass tankard that had been produced to celebrate the 75th anniversary back in 1983. Unfortunately the tankard met a rather sudden and catastrophic demise on impact with our kitchen floor after many proud years of service. 1983 was, as I recall, the end of my first season of 1st XI hockey – that season was also the first time for several years we had won the County Championship (in the Autumn of 1982) with a hard-fought semi-final win over fierce rivals Derby HC (including a first half penalty save by Mickey Kirk). I think we came from 1-0 down to win 2-1having spent part of the game down to 10 men after our maverick centre forward (you know who I mean!) had objected to the award of the penalty in no uncertain terms! The final was against Burton HC (who had surprisingly beaten Chesterfield in the other semi) which we won rather more comfortably by 4-1. I think the team that season was Mickey “Kirkey” Kirk in goal, Al “Daws” Dawson at right back (also in his first season with the club), Phil “Palf” Palfreyman at left back, and Kev “Fireman Kev” Shirley centre back and John “Ellio” Elliot at sweeper. Midfield was Roger “Lich” Lichfield on the right, yourself in the middle, Stewart “Stewie” Charlton (captain) on the left. Upfront were myself on the right, Jon “JB” Barry at centre forward, and Phil “The Sloth” Lowe on the left. Following the cup win we went through two or three rounds of the Midlands Cup Competition before going out, I think at the quarter-final stage, away in a monsoon at Harborne where we had played out of our skins to get to 2-1 up with only 15 mins or so left but conceded 3 goals in the last 15 mins to go out against a very strong Premier Division side. I still think back on my days with Belper, effectively until the end of 1985-86 with a couple of subsequent ‘guest’ appearances, as among my happiest hockey times. Having moved to London in 1986 and spent time with the likes of Hampstead and Teddington I can honestly say that nowhere had such a tight-knit family togetherness as Belper HC. As Mickey Davis referred to in his message we had great times as a squad – I remember travelling in JB’s bus to away games and doing several laps of opposition club car parks with Bruce Springsteen’s ‘No Surrender’ blaring out of the windows at full volume – and then we’d play them off the park! It was great fun and when we were on form we played some bloody good hockey! In subsequent seasons we had Mickey Davis to replace Kev Shirley at centre back, Gary “Nocker” Nock stepped into Palf’s very large shoes at left back, Nige “Ed” Timmins (Nige wasn’t hard enough for us so, to his mother’s disgust(!), we renamed him “Mean Ed”!) replaced the “ageing” Roger Lich at inside right, and Ian “Goodie” Goodacre came in on the left. Possibly a bit of a long-shot but I just wondered whether you’re in touch with many of the other guys from those days and whether we might get some sort of a ‘fringe’ event together at the time of the centenary celebration? Even more of a long shot – it would be brilliant to get some sort of match organized?! I’d be very happy to help organize something if you think this might be a ‘runner’?? Finally, mindful of John Lich’s request for photos, cuttings etc I’ll see if I can dig out my old scrapbook which had a few team photos and newspaper cuttings in it. Pete Wrigley Return to top of page : » 2008 Centenary « |
