GKTHC Alumni Newsletter DECEMBER 2013
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Transcript of GKTHC Alumni Newsletter DECEMBER 2013
F O R E W O R D F R O M T H E C L U B C A P T A I N
F e r g u s S t u c l e y C l a r a b u t C a t m u r I n t h i s N e w s l e t t e r :
H o c k e y C l u b
S O C I A L
E v e n t s
R e p o r t s
2
A L U M N I
E v e n t s
R e p o r t s
5
T E A M
M i d - S e a s o n
R e p o r t s
7
1 s t X I 7
2 n d X I 9
3 r d X I 9
M i x e d X I 1 1
. . . Y O U R A L U M N I S E C R E T A R I E S . . .
R y o k i A r i m o t o & T h e o M u t h
Myself and Theo have been very grateful of
the support and pro-activeness of the Alumni
this year, as it has hugely facilitated our job
being more aware of what the Alumni desire
and are looking for from the current GKTHC...!
Thank you (^^.
The KCLA games were dominated by GKT
this year and the report of that can be read in
this newsletter—it’s a great read. Also we suc-
cessfully hosted the first GKT ALUMNI WEEK-
END half way through our season in Decem-
ber consisting of an “Alumni Pubcrawl” and an
“Alumni Day” filled with plenty of hockey. The
remarks we have received for this have been
great and I am very glad the alumni were able
to reminisce on their days at GKT and feel
part of the club again by literally doing what
they did on a “Wednesday”..! A more formal
report of the weekend can be read further in
this newsletter. We hope this new tradition will
carry on for the coming years and please keep
in touch with us via [email protected]..!
We hope you enjoy the Newsletter & have a
Wonderful Christmas!
Ryo & Theo
Gu
y’s
, k
ing
’s &
St.
Th
om
as
’ H
os
pit
als
Ho
ck
ey C
lub
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 3
G K T H o c k e y C l u b
GKT Hockey Club
ALUMNI Newsletter
Seasons greetings,
I hope this newsletter finds
you well and you’re excited
for the festive period.
These pages can only
contain a small snapshot
of life at GKT Hockey and I
hope you enjoy them as
much as I have enjoyed
this term - thanks to all our
contributors.
The season began with a difference this year.
We felt a change was needed for trials. So we
mixed it up a bit. Hockey Trials before
Fresher’s Trials. And serious hockey trials?! It
was a risk, but we reaped the rewards when
one hundred excitable freshers descended on
Fortress HOP one Sunday. Most of these play-
ers returned for the infamous Fresher’s Trials
the following week. I’m sure you remember
yours fondly, or perhaps not. This year they did
not disappoint. A special note of achievement
for the social secretaries, who managed to
‘cock-block’ the entire Fresher cohort in one
fell swoop - I’m sure they will elaborate later in
the newsletter on this marvellous feat.
Talking about social, we have had two hugely
successful tours since September - T.I.T.S.
(Tournament in the South) to Southampton
and Fresher’s tour to Berlin. The classic mix of
alcohol, nudity and “having too much fun” com-
bined for hilarious results. We can confirm that
German doctors still don’t have anything on
the NHS, as one unfortunate fresher discov-
ered. NAMS mixed tour is not long away and
we would love to see you as part of the alumni
team in Norwich.
The new website launched at the end of Au-
gust to mark a new online presence for GKT
Hockey. To see what’s been happening I urge
you to have a look at
www.gkthockeyclub.co.uk. Alterna-
tively, “Like” us on Facebook where regular
updates are posted throughout the season.
Lastly, our recent Alumni Pubcrawl and Day
was a roaring success; thanks to Ryo and
Theo for putting in the ground work and mak-
ing it happen. I am proud to say that the club
continues to thrive - if you weren’t able to
make it back this time, come see us soon.
Don’t be a stranger.
Merry Christmas!!
Ferg
M i n i - n e w s
Freshers’ Tour was to
the furthest location in
History
1st ever Alumni Week-
end in December
1stXI are currently un-
beaten…!
...minions dominating
Guy’s Bar…!?
Mixed team through to
Semifinals of NAMS
League
This year started with a very strong intake
of fresher’s at the Freshers’ Fayre in Sep-
tember. We warmly welcomed them to our
club at fresher’s trials. This was a huge
success as they already had a chance to
mingle at the club trials 3 days earlier. With
much reluctance, they trudged to HOP for
an afternoon of fun and games. Fun was
definitely had (more so by the old boys) and
there were a plethora of games on offer for
the fresher’s to learn the rules and meet the
old boys. One fresher showed his newly
found devotion to our club by shouting at
the King’s boys – just a few yards away –
that “King’s are c***s”. Perhaps the high-
light of the day was the fermented herring;
a Scandinavian delicacy that we felt the
fresher’s just couldn’t miss out on. Old boys
were trembling at the smell; however it did
manage to keep the girls away until 9pm.
After fresher’s trials we held a mixed social
in our brand new clubhouse at HOP, held
after all our teams had played. In atten-
dance was the new Dean for Medical Edu-
cation, who had incidentally, cancelled 3
meetings and taken a £20 taxi to be there.
He then proceeded to buy a £22 pitcher to
be shared around. He might be getting
more invites to our future socials.
We wanted to go big this year for tour so
Berlin it was! Somehow the destination
remained a mystery until we hit Berlin 16
hours after we left London (now that’s what
you call a fun bus!). We met in Guy’s Bar
just after our performance at the circus
(fresher’s were topless clowns, obviously)
and soon departed on our mystical journey.
Funnel in the [channel] tunnel was a per-
sonal highlight and escalated so much that
there was stinky chat about French police
pulling the bus over at the other end. That
would have been awkward seeing as
though we had enforced the rule – no pants
in France. Highlights of the trip included:
tour photo at the Reichstag, ice skating,
curling, German beer on tap (literally), cur-
rywurst, tour snog being rejected by a pros-
titute, head butting the Berlin wall and Bay-
watch at the Berlin wall. In addition to all of
this, we did have to make the obligatory trip
to the A&E department as a fresher needed
to have 10 stitches in his hand, following a
fight with a vodka bottle. The return trip
called for us to rise and shine at the opti-
mistic time of 6am (after most of us re-
turned at 5am from our night out). Everyone
loaded on the bus, ready to go. Quick head
count. 1 short…. Hannes. Not only had he
fallen asleep after he had packed all of his
stuff. He fell asleep in the only place in the
hostel that was hidden from view for a good
20 minutes, lying vertical on a sofa hidden
by the arms. Fortunately the rumours that
he had gone wondering around Berlin look-
ing for food were unfounded. Thankfully we
were all accounted for and headed home
after what was a TOURiffic weekend! The
icing on the cake was hearing cries of ‘I
have never seen Dr Watson down a pint’ on
the channel tunnel back home. See the
TITS round up…
Beaujolais - we can neither confirm or deny
whether this event happened, and even if it
did, we can't say for sure that a fresher
ended up in A&E.
The term came to fruition at the club’s
Christmas Dinner. This year, we thought
GKT deserved a bit of class and so we
booked it at the Southbank pub, The An-
chor. With themes: 1’s – Cavemen (some
more slutty than others), 2’s – Sheiks and
3’s – Minions (they remained very yellow
for a few days after). As highly regarded as
The Anchor is, they forgot to supply cutlery
for our fresher’s and apparently the chef put
far too much pepper on Ozzy’s starter.
All in all we have had an incredibly fun
term, full of frivolities, and we can’t wait for
the second.
Oscar & Dan
S O C I A L D E B A U C H E R Y U P D A T E
S o c i a l s e x : O s c a r B a r n i c k & D a n C u r l e y
F R E S H E R S ’
T O U R
2 0 1 3
B E R L I N
Page 2 G K T H o c k e y C l u b
This term has been full of activity and excit-
ing developments regarding the media as-
pect of the club. Abandoning the old Word-
press web page, we migrated to Pitchero
(www.GKThockeyclub.co.uk), which has
functioned as a hub for not only news, infor-
mation and event promotions but as a way
for captains to keep track of their team se-
lections and matches. Every member of the
club now has their own profile page that
shows availabilities, post match statistics
and scope for personalisations. Further-
more, linking all our media outputs
(Facebook, Twitter and the Pitchero home-
page) into one cohesive narrative has
saved considerable time as any updates/
news in one becomes automatically up-
dated in the rest. There's still more to do
regarding media, but for now Happy Xmas
and New Year from the Media manager!
Luan
M E D I A M A N A G E R R E P O R T
L u a n - d o n d a n g
“One fresher
showed his
newly found
devotion to our
club by shouting
at the King’s
boys – just a few
yards away –
that “King’s are
c***s”.”
Page 3 G K T H o c k e y C l u b
2013 saw the biggest TITS turn out ever,
with 40 odd GKTers making the journey
into the wilderness to Southampton. With
the theme being ‘This Is War’ (somewhat
inappropriate for a remembrance Sunday),
GKT chose to honour one of our final years
and selected samurai outfits. In typical Eng-
lish weather the 40 or so assembled in Bol-
land house, each sizing up rival fancy dress
efforts, particularly notable performances
coming from Mark Gabrawi and Charlie
Reeve. Ryo arrived somewhat hung-over
and in what was initially thought to be his
weekend-wear, although this turned out to
be his fancy dress. Spirits were already
high following Wales’ rugby humiliation to
South-Africa, an occurrence that a ginger
final year was left pondering all weekend.
Gin was consumed and our motley crew
departed Guy’s and embarked on to the
TITS FUNBUS! Yes a fun bus to TITS! Un-
fortunately some freshers had yet to get to
grasp the concept of ‘funbus’ and forgot
alcohol, an act that they soon came to re-
gret. The journey under way, GKT did what
GKT does best and proceeded to get
smashed. Most of the journey remains a
hazy mystery to me, although I do remem-
ber something about picking up hitch hikers
and a certain female second year hockey
fresher getting pretty well acquainted with
them…
Despite the untested competence of the
mixed captains, GKT arrived in Southamp-
ton and managed to divide themselves into
host houses, Gaby insisting she be the only
girl in an all boy house. Bedding issues
resolved, GKT hit Southampton, curry was
munched, jaegerbombs were downed, and
somehow most of us found our way to jest-
ers, every bit as disgusting as anticipated.
With many TITS freshers this year, the nov-
elty of the ‘jesticle’ was thoroughly enjoyed,
and photographic evidence would suggest
everyone had fun. Rugby boys (who
seemed to have got lost and ended up on a
hockey tour) Jon Ryves and Scott Eastick
had interesting nights, Jon ‘having a Crate
of beer’ and Scotty demonstrating his tech-
nical skills with a harpoon. Well played.
Andrew Baigey showed that his situational
judgment was not his forte when he de-
cided to bring an unknown hockey girl back
to a room he was sharing with ten men and
then hid her under his duvet for 2 hours.
When asked about her he just said some-
thing about meeting her at Costa? Rich
Cam took the opportunity to introduce his
housemates to an old friend, known by the
alias ‘Dr Watson’. Dr Watson, while a little
shy at first soon came out of his cage, and
proceeded to spend the rest of the week-
end out, eventually and quite sneakily get-
ting well acquainted with pretty much every-
one on TITS.
Sunday saw GKT showing their inner steel,
by being the only team drinking, which lead
to a surprisingly good standard of hockey!
The freshers demonstrated their worth by
getting lost on a naked lap of the pitch, and
the men’s mixed captain found himself in a
sticky situation with his feet well off the
ground. The afternoon saw Bayo discover
why claiming gin indestructibility is a bad
idea, and I’m pretty sure we pissed a lot of
people off. With the night creeping in, GKT
beat a retreat to the Southampton SU pick-
ing up booze on the way, before leaping
back onto the bus and heading back to-
wards civilization. Arrival back in London
saw most make a beeline to Dover Castle,
where those who remained found out rather
too much about each other in an imitation
of ‘would I lie to you’, hosted by Dan
Curley.
Harry
T I T S 2 0 1 3
M i x e d C a p t a i n . : H a r r y C o u l t o n
“…sharing
with ten men
and then hid
her under his
duvet for 2
hours.”
Page 4 G K T H o c k e y C l u b
KCL alumni day is the kind of rabble rous-
ing, drum beating event that young institu-
tions with no place in the real history of the
world like to arrange to aggressively assert
their right to exist. Think American Inde-
pendence Day. This year, unlike previ-
ously, the medical school, home of Alumni
dating back 1000 years (most of whom
were unfortunately unable to attend), were
invited to send teams.
For many reasons, rather than turning up
with two teams to play each other, we ar-
rived with 10 men, and promptly challenged
KCL (alumni and students) to put up the
best they had against us in a winner-takes-
all match.
Gauntlet laid down, we promptly retired to
the bar for the age-old warm up of Touch
the Cup. Having lubricated our gastro-
intestinal tracts while our future opposition
were laying down a dominant win against
their own alumni, we took to the grass
pitch, with our 10 man team much divided
by widely different cultural references. Not
helped by the fact that the two freshers
gamely attending were 5 years old when
some members of the alumni were freshers
themselves.
Expecting a thrashing, the
GKT all-starts (sic) set
themselves up for a
counter-attacking game
only to find that very little
countering was required.
Quickly 1-0 up, amongst very dubious but
well-meaning umpiring, the team quickly
found a stride that had not been antici-
pated, so much so that the hamstrings of
the older members could not keep up.
A variety of spectacular goals followed,
while the Kings team were quickly reduced
to potshots and speculative attempts to
make a point, like any good humanities
essay.
The game finished 5-0, and as the better
team were heard to cheer their opposition
in the time-honoured fashion of the English
sportsman, from their vanquished oppo-
nents came barely a squeak.
There have been greater moments in the
rivalry between GKT and Kings, which for
them has been long-running but for us has
only occupied the last 20% of our exis-
tence. But it is hard to think of any in the
last 10 years.
The sight of the tree outside the bar draped
in 'King's sport Forever' t-shirts hanging
forlornly from it's many branches summed
up a day high in both triumph and tragedy,
distributed most unequally between the
teams.
Tom
Despite this, what was nice to see was I,
myself as a final year whilst attempting to
take care of a fresher, was able to catch up
with ‘Mak’ aka Mukunder Patel who was a
final year when I was a fresher..! An equal
age range of 18, 23 and 28…I
would never have dreamt of this
line-up when I joined GKT, to be
honest I cannot believe I’m a
final year already..!
The following day consisted of
three games of Mixed, Men’s and
Ladies’; the score being 4-2, 2-1,
and 3-4 to the Alumni respec-
tively, making the Alumni the
winners of the 1st GKT Alumni
This year we were very pleased to host the
FIRST GKT Alumni Weekend at the begin-
ning of December consisting of a pubcrawl
around the delights of London bridge and
borough high street, followed by an after-
noon of hockey at HOP. A total of 17
Alumni attended, and we feel this is the
most number of Alumni we’ve managed to
gather in a long time..!
The pubcrawl started off to be a very pleas-
ant evening, with some catch up talk over a
beverage or two…however being a GKT
night out, it did not take long for things to
escalate to drinking games and dirty pints—
namely for our token fresher, Geoff who did
suffer some unpleasant consequences.
K C L A G A M E S R E P O R T
A l u m n u s : T o m S i m p s o n
G K T A L U M N I W E E K E N D 2 0 1 3
R y o k i A r i m o t o
“...two freshers
gamely
attending were
5 years old
when some
members of the
alumni were
freshers
themselves.”
Page 5 G K T H o c k e y C l u b
Day in history..! Congratulations =) MVPs
for the respective teams were awarded a
bottle of Gordon’s finest Gin, signed by
every player who played in the games. This
is a tradition which had been reinstated by
Vinesh Patel, in the Vinesh Patel Cup we
held over the summer. MVPs for the mixed
game was awarded to Alumnus Mark Shim-
mings for his solidarity in being a brick wall
of stopping every ball which could poten-
tially go past him and fresher Geoffrey Law-
rence showing a fine performance in goal
despite being an eternal Left-back for the
current 1stXI. In the Men’s game these
were awarded to Alumnus Kaanthan Jawa-
har who also captained the Alumni side
with strong intent successfully leading them
to victory over a strong 1stXI side; when he
chucked the aerials every player was
speechless. MVP for the current XI was
awarded to second year med. Student, Dan
Curley for showing some phenomenal pace
and skill up front and scoring the only goal
for the team, despite being the goal keeper
for the 1st XI. In the Ladies’ game MVPs
were awarded to Alumnus, Jess Seymour
and fourth year med student, Grace Isbister
where both players have captained the
ladies 1stXI in the past, and I heard that
there was some furious hockey being
played between the two…they thoroughly
deserved the gin.
Once the games were done on a cold but
dry December afternoon, Dean was very
kind to offer all of us some curry, rice and
chips for a very generous price. I’m pretty
sure everybody enjoyed this seeing as the
food ran out. Also my apologies for forget-
ting to organize the vegetarian option..!
I hope all the Alumni enjoyed their weekend
back at the club, and may I take this oppor-
tunity to thank you all for being so efficient
and cooperative with responding to emails.
It has made myself’s, Theo’s and Grace’s
life very easy when coming to organize
these events. Thank you!! Also I hope this
tradition of a mid-season Alumni weekend
continues as the remarks for this have been
great (…and I myself would be very much
keen to come back for this kind of event
when I graduate…)..!
Finally to finish, this is just a thought which
arose in me…Time flies particularly fast
when you join GKTHC, and I hope some of
you agree with this…However what I can
say with confidence is, GKT Hockey Club is
something which I’ll take pride in no matter
how old I get. The link with the Alumni is
absolutely crucial not just for the Alumni but
also for the current club and the way we
can accomplish this is by having both ends
of the club to be enthusiastic and willing to
let this happen. I feel this is definitely start-
ing to happen since this Alumni weekend..!
We’ll be in touch soon with regards to
NAMS, which is on the 11th-14th APRIL
2014 as well and for any future events! We
look forward to seeing you all very soon in
the near future =)
Ryo, Theo & Grace x
. . . c o n t i n u e d . . .
“...Curley for
showing some
phenomenal
pace and skill
up front…”
Page 6 G K T H o c k e y C l u b
This half of the season, the four teams; 1st
XI, 2nd XI, 3rd XI & Mixed XI captained by
Sachin Sharma, Faisal Karim, Andrew
Baigey & Harry Coulton have had varying
degrees of success, but the main thing that
all three teams have in common is the
strong pride they have for playing for GKT.
The captains our leading the teams strongly
through the GKT tradition both on and off
the pitch and are setting a great example of
how GKTHC should be.
The three men’s teams have been compet-
ing in the BUCS leagues of 2B, 4B & 6B
with the 1st XI standing at the top of 2B,
2nd XI at 5th of 4B and the 3rd XI at 4th of
6B. The 1st XI are the only ones left in the
BUCS Cup now in the last 16 of the compe-
tition awaiting to play Surrey 1st XI.
In the LUSL leagues, the 1st XI are cur-
rently at the top of Division 1, and the 2nd &
3rd XI are both third in Division 2 & 3 re-
spectively. Again the 1st XI are the only
team to remain in the LUSL Cup awaiting to
play RUMS 1st XI in the Quarterfinals.
The Mixed XI have successfully made it to
the semifinals of NAMS league this year
and are awaiting to play Warwick medics.
There are more competitions to come up
including the first ever Varsity game against
RUMS, the UH Cup and of course the Mac-
adam Cup. We wish the teams the best of
luck for the second half of the season after
Christmas..! Hopefully we’ll be able to re-
port back some great news in the Summer
Newsletter (^^.
T E A M R E P O R T S
G K T H C
T E A M
R E P O R T S
1 s t X I
C a p t a i n : S a c h i n S h a r m a
ful couple of weeks as our new formation
was worked on, fitness was improved dras-
tically and we began to gel as a team both
on and off the pitch.
We have dominated most matches we have
played so far. Two wins against Imperial
1’s, as well as wins against LSE 1’s and
Essex 1’s were all pretty straightforward
thanks to the high levels of skills and deter-
mination on show. Our best victory of the
season so far has to be against Canterbury
Christchurch 1’s. Traditionally a power-
house in university hockey, they were not
prepared for what faced them when they
travelled to the fortress that is HOP, even
with an England international in their side.
Straight from the first whistle we dominated
the match and didn’t let them settle, smash-
ing them 5-1. This was one of the best per-
formances I have ever been part of at GKT.
The other performance to note was that
versus the ‘Hole in the Strand’. With both of
us unbeaten after the first 4 games, this
was a crucial match. Preparation was not
the best with tour taking place the weekend
before. I spent the whole weekend trying to
make sure we all avoided injury but failed
as Fresher Anthony decided to smash
Fresher Calum’s hand with a vodka bottle
(or so I have been told). However, unde-
terred we went into the match high on confi-
Played – 12. Won – 11. Drawn – 1 Lost – 0.
#unbeaten2K13 has been found trending
over the media sites since GKT 1’s season
got underway mid-October. Fast forward 2
months, it has been one of the most suc-
cessful starts to a campaign any GKT team
has seen in recent years. We are top of our
BUCS and LUSL leagues and into the later
stages of both the BUCS and LUSL cups.
The position we find ourselves in is only
one we had dreamed about when we con-
sidered what the season had in store for us
way back in September.
With a team in transition, and a very large
fresher intake, thanks to Fergus’ immense
marketing campaign to highlight GKT as a
‘Campus Team’, a thorough pre-season
was essential to bed in all the new lads.
Although results didn’t all go to plan (one
win, one draw, one loss), it was a success-
Page 7 G K T H o c k e y C l u b
dence hoping to end a 5 year wait of beat-
ing the polytechnic. A goal in the first ten
seconds helped our course but then spent
the next 69 minutes, 50 seconds defending.
We managed to battle our way to a point
and stay top of the league where we have
remained up till now.
The LUSL league has provided us with
some easier fixtures on a Sunday, allowing
everyone to get some more game time. A
goal difference of plus 22 after 4 games
highlights the dominance we have shown in
this league. The early cup rounds have also
been rather simple (including a 15-0 win
against RUMS 2’s) and we have reached
the last 16 of the BUCS cup and the last 8
of the LUSL cup.
Off the pitch has been just as entertaining,
partly due to the fact we have a large num-
bers of freshers willing to do pretty much
anything to amuse the old boys. Fresher
challenges have proved to be very popular
every week, with a variety of exotic and
strange foods and beverages being con-
sumed. Dance-offs, sing-offs and comedy
routines have also kept us thoroughly en-
tertained at our monthly Nando’s team
meals with much more to come next term.
All in all, it has been an amazing start to the
season. We hope to continue that into the
next year as we challenge in 7 different
competitions and hopefully we can bring
back home some silverware to Guys.
Finally I would just like to send some
Christmas thanks:
To Ferret, our wonderful coach who has
kept us all in check and has given so much
to GKT hockey club over the last year and
a half
To The Freshers who have been a great
bunch of lads and have begun to learn what
GKT is all about
To The Final Years, appreciate massively
the commitment you have shown to carry
on playing even with the work piling up
And most importantly:
To everyone involved with GKT Hockey,
the support we have received this year up
to now has been unbelievable and we, as a
team, are very grateful. Next term sees
some massive games for us (ending with
Macadam Cup) and any support we get
helps psyche us up that bit more, so thank
you very much!
I hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year.
Sachin x
. . . c o n t i n u e d . . .
“...#unbeaten
2K13…”
Page 8 G K T H o c k e y C l u b
It would probably be fair to say the Mighty
2s have had a rocky first half of the season;
a young squad plagued by peripheral
placements and injuries to the senior mem-
bers have seen us struggle to keep our
opponents at bay. As far as BUCS goes,
one win, one draw and three losses later
and we are finally gaining some momentum
and playing the kind of hockey of which the
2s can be more proud.
Despite suffering our 3rd loss this season
to the dastardly RVC in our final game be-
fore Christmas, we managed to play some
confident, attacking hockey with our new
fresher, Salman 'Sleazy' Sheikh getting
amongst the goals recently. Also, our mid-
field lynchpin, Ozzy 'long legs' Ahmad has
been marshalling the midfield and playing
through the pain barrier to provide us with
some stability and bite down the middle.
We've even had ex-Captain, Fresher Rich,
come back and put in some hard shifts for
the team.
Off the hockey pitch, selling 20 tickets for
Christmas Dinner despite being allocated a
mere 15 shows you what the 2s is all about.
And I would say that the Arab Sheikhs
gracing Guy's Bar on that chilly evening
were the best looking and best dressed,
Sheikhing it like Polaroid pictures on the
dance floor.
So what we do have this season is a heap
of young talent - and while it’s all too clear
that none of our freshers had ever downed
a pint before uni, with this blend of youthful-
ness and experience, we are improving
every match and I'm looking forward to the
second half of the season.
Faisal & Dom
trials left us with a fresh faced team of 33
boys with something to prove.
And prove they did. Our pre-season friend-
lies were encouraging, losing narrowly to
the well established and cocky Ladies’ 1s,
forcing a 0-0 draw from the well established
and slightly-cocky Ladies’ 2s, then giving
the newly established yet cocky Men’s 2s a
decent run for their money. As a new
The start of the season was a big turning
point for the 3s. Due to a number of losses
to the club at the end of the 2012-2013
season, the lion’s share of the squad
moved on to greener pastures in the 2s and
1s. What we were left with was (with one or
two notable exceptions) a squad entirely
made up of the previous year’s hockey
freshers. A fantastic intake from freshers’
2 n d X I
C p t . & V C : F a i s a l K a r i m & D o m A l d r i d g e
3 r d X I
C a p t a i n : A n d r e w B a i g e y
“...none of
our freshers
had ever
downed a
pint before
uni…”
Page 9 G K T H o c k e y C l u b
squad, these games were essential in dis-
covering what our strengths and weak-
nesses were, allowing the wonderful Julie
Ferrett to tailor our Monday training ses-
sions to our needs. (It’s worth adding that
having a coach that works as hard for the
3s as she does for the 1s is an absolute
godsend)
Our first BUCS fixture was the toughest
we’d have to face all term - the Greenwich
1s. We played well but they were a better
team, and the result of our flat-out determi-
nation was managing to keep the score
below double figures. At least there weren’t
any on-pitch fights with them this year.
Next up was the Imperial 4s. Well, on paper
they were the 4s but they had so many
ringers on the pitch even they didn’t know
what team they were meant to be - their
‘captain’ genuinely had to be reminded at
the coin toss. That being said, we held out
well on a flooded pitch and the score of 5-0
wasn’t representative of the hockey we
played.
Goldsmiths turned up with 6 men, but they
seemed like nice blokes so we ended up
calling the match a walkover and donating
a few of our players to them to play a
friendly. The traitors were suitably punished
afterwards, but it was clear that the 3s
squad was really starting to work together
as a unit.
This translated into a 2-0 win against the
RUMS 3s the following weekend - sadly I
was at a conference (the one f***ing game
I’ve missed all season) but a full report of
the match, written by acting-captain-cum-
dickhead Alex Warren, can be found on our
flash new club website. Read it, if only for
phrases like “But cometh the hour, cometh
the man. Today that man was Alex War-
ren”.
Serendipitously, our next fixture was three
days later against the same team. Both
teams had reason to fight hard, which
forced the GKT 3s to play the best hockey
this captain has ever seen them play. The
game ended 1-1, which both sides agreed
was a fair result. The next game was a 6-2
beating by the UCL 3s, after which every
other game was cancelled or postponed for
next year.
Off the pitch there were definitely more
wins than losses. The 3s lived up to their
strong social reputation with excellent
Guy’s Bar attendances, hideous tosser
nominations, and the best Christmas Din-
ner theme ever (Despicable Me’s Minions).
Big love to the freshers for jumping into the
GKT experience with both feet (or both
fingers, if you’re Sachin sitting at Keats),
and to the postgrad freshers for putting up
with this shit all over again.
Andrew
. . . c o n t i n u e d . . .
“...losing
narrowly to the
well
established
and cocky
Ladies’ 1s…”
Page 10 G K T H o c k e y C l u b
“...with open
goals missed,
naughty
tackles made,
and gin
received…”
Page 11 G K T H o c k e y C l u b
The season commenced on a stormy Sun-
day, HOP lit by lightning. The setting possi-
bly doing justice to the awesomeness of
hockey the newly fledged GKT mixed team
produced against Southampton medics.
With a team consisting of numerous fresh-
ers, GKT did not disappoint, and managed
to go one up on the visitors by half time.
Southampton, being the strongest in our
NAMS pool, came back all guns blazing
and equalized shortly after half time. With
some amazing tech from the freshers, GKT
converted their chances and retook the
lead, and continued to frustrate Southamp-
ton holding them out until the final whistle.
With Southampton vanquished, only Penin-
sula and St Georges remained. Fortunately
the consanguineous medics from peninsula
withdrew from NAMS (if not from each
other) leaving only St Georges in GKTs
path. A scrappy match ensued, with open
goals missed, naughty tackles made, and
gin received on both sides. GKT soldiered
through, snatching a victory and the top
spot in our NAMS pool. With this exciting
news, GKT will be facing Warwick in the
semi finals in early 2014.
Unfortunately due to BUCS doubling LUSL
fixtures having listened to and acted on the
opinion of a tiny minority of voices the vast
majority of friendly matches this term gone
have had to be cancelled due to lack of
availability. Expect to hear news of friend-
lies vs St Georges and London Strollers in
the New Year. Old students are naturally
welcome to take part.
Harry
M I X E D X I
C a p t a i n : H a r r y C o u l t o n
Club Captain: Fergus Catmur -
Alumni Secretaries:
Men’s Committee
Club Captain—Fergus Catmur
Treasurer—Max Schofield
Fixtures Secretary—Nidhin Laji
Social Secretaries—Oscar Barnick & Dan Curley
Alumni Secretaries—Ryoki Arimoto & Theo Muth
1st XI Captain—Sachin Sharma
1st XI VCpt.—Khush Shah
2nd XI Captain—Faisal Karim
2nd XI VCpt.—Dom Aldridge
3rd XI Captain—Andrew Baigey
3rd XI VCpt.—Alex Warren
C O N T A C T I n f o r m a t i o n
eager to tell us, or even just want to give us
an update of how you’re doing...literally
anything! You can even slag off this news-
letter if you like (...but preferably, please
don’t...just because I’m yellow…). Utilize
this newsletter to your hearts content.
Finally, please let us know of anything you
would like us to do and keep in touch..! We
are always here and are always looking
forward to seeing you beautiful people!!
Hope you all have a wonderful
Christmas and a Happy New Year (^^.
See you in 2014..!x
I hope you have all enjoyed the read..! Just
a few points I would like to raise now with
regards to some things we would like to
implement for the Alumni in the future..!
Firstly, if you know of anyone who is not on
the mailing list for the Alumni please let us
know or inform them to email
[email protected] for them to be
added on. We are thinking of implementing
a monthly update of the hockey club to the
Alumni and will aim to send an email on
every 20-22nd day of the month..! If you
realize you’ve said that forbidden word on
that date, maybe it’s a reminder for you to
check your inbox…
Secondly, in future newsletters, we would
like to add in more reports from the Alumni.
So if you have any inspiring stories you’d
. . . F i n a l r e m a r k s …
R y o k i A r i m o t o
www.gkthockeyclub.co.uk