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Eastcote Hockey &
Badminton Club - The First 50 Years
The club
was founded in October 1956 by a small group of hockey enthusiasts and started
to play at the Cavendish Recreation Ground in Eastcote and took its name of
Eastcote Hockey Club from those roots. Initially one men's team was
fielded but very soon a ladies team began to play every Saturday The
players used the Council changing rooms and went to the local pub for post
match refreshment. The high spot of that first year was the game
with the legendary Hounslow, albeit with their 6th XI – how times have
changed!
Further teams were added which, because of
the limited hockey pitch availability at Cavendish, caused some games to
be played at Bessingby Park in Ruislip Manor. A growing
feeling of the players was a desire to have their own clubhouse and a permanent
base. Through the influence of the then Chairman John Beasley,
a local Councillor and subsequent club President, the Council
offered a 30 year lease on a small piece of land at
Kings College Playing Fields, Ruislip onto which funds could be raised to build
a clubhouse with the use of the adjacent grass pitches.
In those days The Department of Education were offering a 50% grant if you built
a new sporting facility. The erection of a straightforward clubhouse and bar did
not qualify, but with the addition of a Badminton Court, the whole building then
qualified. In those days the clubhouse on its own cost £5,500, with Badminton
Court added, £11,000, so with a 50% grant the Badminton Court was free. The
hall also gave room for teas for up to 5 home teams that were fielded on a
Saturday and space for social functions. The small bar was where the existing
kitchen now is, spilling out into the badminton hall on a Saturday evening.
Kings College provided 5 grass pitches that the club was able to hire on an
annual basis, which were more than enough for the club's ambitions at that time.
Thus Eastcote Hockey and Badminton Club came into existence. In 1976 the
building was extended adding a larger bar area and storerooms and in 1980 a
games room was added.
As time progressed the club grew bigger and shale all weather pitches were being
introduced as the leading edge of pitch technology. Again through the influence
of John Beasley, now Mayor of Hillingdon, the Council installed such a floodlit
pitch on the other side of the River Pinn in 1972 and the club were able to hire
this by the hour on a Saturday and on a Thursday evening for training. The Club
continued to consolidate achieving intermittent success, the high spot being in
the late 1970s, when the men's team reached the National Inter League play-offs
in Birmingham.
Gradually due to the economic pressure facing Central Government and Local
Councils, the level of support from Hillingdon
Council slowly reduced, forcing more of the costs of pitch maintenance onto the
Club. In the 1980's the Club took out a 10-year
licence on the grass pitches becoming responsible
for all of the running costs. Astro pitches then started to be introduced
in some parts of the country and the club asked
Hillingdon Council to upgrade the shale pitch to this new
surface, but they were no longer able to support the Clubs
latest requirements. In the late 1980's the Council indicated that they
would allow the club to raise money itself and build their own
astro pitch. This took nearly 9 years to come to fruition.
With the advent of the National Lottery, the money was finally raised with
grants from the Lottery, the Foundation for Sport and the Arts, The London
Marathon Charitable Trust and Hillingdon Council to add to the money raised by
Club members own efforts. In November 1996, celebrating the club's 40th
Anniversary, the first game took place on the synthetic grass pitch called
the Eastro. Bernhards of Rugby installed the pitch with
floodlighting by Musco. When the final breakthrough came on financing the
new Eastro pitch, it revitalised the whole Club, even before construction
commenced the club began to buzz.
The results that year saw the men's 1st team restored to the South Premier
League in 1997 and the following season gaining promotion to the EHA National
League for the following two seasons. In 2000 however saw the team relegated
back to the South Premier and last season finishing 5th. The First team also won
the Middlesex cup about three times. The 2nd team won
the South Premier title in 2001.
The Super Vets over 50s won the EHA National Vintage Cup for 3 years
in a row, 1996-98 and in the 11 years of this competition the
team has always reached at least the quarterfinal stage. They were
runners-up both in 2000 and 2002 semi-finalists in 1995,1999,2001, 2003,2005.
The ladies 1st team won the EHA National Women's Plate in 1999/2000 and were
Semi-Finalists in the Trophy in 2001 and 2004 and Quarter Finalists in 2002.
Promoted to the South Division 1 in 2004 they finished 5th and last year 05/06
finished 4th - so more progress!
Ladies vets won the Middx cup 04/05, and again in 05/06, where they also went on
to win the South cup earning a place in the National Vets Ladies Final, but
sadly had to pull out as most of them were in Greece for Batch's wedding !!!!
Colts hockey has always been a strong feature of the Club,
right back in the days of the Green Shield Badge Awards. Many of the
recent and current top team players are offspring of the senior players 20
year and more ago, with the next generation of grandchildren
starting to come through. With the advent of the Eastro, the Sunday morning
Colts now starts at 9.30am and carries on until 1pm with around 125 girls and
boys receiving coaching. The boys U14s were Middlesex Cup Runners Up in
1999/2000 and winners in 2000/1. The Mixed U11s and Boys
U13s were Middlesex Champions in 2003 and both reached the South
Championships Semi-Finals, the U16 boys won the Mercian North League
title in 2001/2 and were Runners Up at the Mercian
Home Counties Final and in 2004 finished 4th gaining promotion
to the Mercian Home Counties Premier League.
Colts are now being introduced to Saturday league hockey from the
ages of 11 upwards and leading boy colts now
are part of an Academy receiving direct coaching from the men's 1st team Coach.
After many years of fruitless negotiation with the Council over the closure of
the changing rooms in the pavilion on the other side of the road, building work
commenced in the clubhouse in March 2002 on 4 new changing rooms, 2 umpires
rooms and a complete refit of the existing 2 changing rooms. This has been
funded entirely by the Club and the new rooms were opened in August 2002. The
kitchen was also expanded and refurbished at the same time. 2005 has seen the
bar refurbished and now includes a wide screen TV. The summer of 2006 will see
some substantial refurbishment of the Badminton Hall roof and walls again funded
entirely by the club.
A relationship with Brunel University has been in place for over 20
years and this was formalised in 2001 when special arrangements with them
allows Students to join Eastcote on preferential rates. We use
their Astro Turf pitch in Uxbridge on Saturdays for games. In 2006 a
new relationship with Harefield Academy was set up that
involves us using their new Astro Turf pitch and establishing reciprocal
training and coaching arrangements.
The Club fields 12 men's and 5 ladies league sides on Saturdays, 2 Sunday Mixed,
2 Sunday Veterans and 7 colts league teams.
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