A&C enjoyed success on Saturday in their friendly away to Eastcote. A&C started positively and made several dangerous attacks often prompted by Caroline Coates and Erin Ruxton. It was no surprise when they took the lead after 12 minutes when Natalie Durkin scored from a penalty corner. Both Ruxton and Sarah Cartledge had chances to extend A&C's lead but were denied by the keeper. At the other end, Heidi James and Annie Brothwell made some great tackles to keep Eastcote at bay.

A&C's second goal came 4 minutes after half-time, when Coates drove into the circle and her shot at goal was neatly deflected past the 'keeper by Alison Spicer. A&C continued to play good hockey as they attacked with real purpose and plenty of movement. Several more chances were created. The best of these fell to Durkin and Ruxton who were again denied by the home 'keeper. A very encouraging team performance prior to the resumption next week of the league programme.

Team: Fyffe; James; Spicer, Parker, Brothwell; Ruxton, Shaw, Boughen, Durkin; Coates, Frick; Subs: Cartledge.

RACE NIGHT - SAT 21ST FEBRUARY

Here is this weeks roll of honour:

The Dunnings get the family of the week award... Lorna played 3s & 4s, Paul umpired, Rachel played in goal for the 4s and Jenny coached & supported! What a family!

The following were elected at the AGM that took place on 6th February:

Chairman: Matthew Stevenson
Secretary: Matthew Stevenson
Treasurer: Murray Scott
Fixture Secretary: Dan Webb
Saturday 1st XI cpatain: Zamir Khan
Saturday 2nd XI captain: David Peters
Saturday 3rd XI captain: Dan Webb
Sunday 1st XI captain: Rahul Punj
Sunday 2nd XI captain: Dan Webb
Juniors Manager: Phil Noot
Social Rep: Mike Burge
Fund Raising Manager: Saqib Ahmed
Ground Manager: David Banner
Teams Manager: Patrick Nagle
CPSA Board Rep: Chris N. Yoxall

There should be more cricket next week including news of indoor nets, working parties and playing personnel.

Having travelled to Watford over the Christmas period to play West Herts 3rd XI and successfully beaten them 7-1, we were all looking forward to a match against their 2nd XI. We were not disappointed. The game was fast and furious. Amersham & Chalfont had to raise their game to compete with a much more intensive and skilful team. A nasty deflection at the top of the circle saw West Herts go into the lead within the first 10 minutes and by half time their lead was extended by another goal from a superb series of moves down the full length of the pitch culminating in several great saves by the Amersham and Chalfont keeper before being hammered home at the far post by their left wing.

The second half saw A&C make a few changes of positioning which brought about their first goal by Sarah Daughtrey who out sprinted West Herts defence to obtain a short corner from which she converted the rebound off the keeper from a straight strike. A&C decided that the best line of defence was to attack and not give the opposition any chance of going further into the lead. This they managed by a concerted amount of pressure which enabled the second goal to be scored by Janet Carter from a reverse stick strike having previously dummied the keeper.

West Herts started to pile on the pressure and the remainder of the game saw end to end hockey of a very high standard. A&C ended up ahead with their final goal coming from Lorraine Stratford who was playing her debut game for the 3rd XI. The only reason West Herts did not draw level in the last 5 minutes of the game was due to the superb keeping by Helen Marsden, clearly her best game of the season.

UMPIRING COURSE
We are running an umpiring course over two evenings on Wednesday 3rd and 10th of March from 8 - 10 pm at the club - all welcome. Those wishing to qualify will be given a written test on the 17th March. This is a good time to gain umpiring qualification by gaining experience umpiring in friendly games up to the end of the season and over the summer. Please advise your captain or get in contact with Jo Peters (Ph: 01753 890497 / email: jo.peters99@tiscali.co.uk) if you wish to attend the course, or if you have any queries regarding the course.

HOCKEY CLUB AGM
Just to let you know that the ACHC AGM is going to be held on Friday 7th May 2004 at 7:30pm at the clubhouse - your attendance and involvement is important as we need to fill a large number of roles, some of which are relatively small but do help the club function smoothly.

There is a list of all roles up on the hockey notice board and usually on tables/the bar at the club on a Saturday. Please contact me if you wish to find out more as to how you can help our club - andrew@countax.com or 01296 428095 (evenings) or 07710 419914 or in the bar on Saturday afternoons.