Sutton Coldfield, now running ten Saturday teams, and Mansfield dominated Midland Division 1. The clear leaders in the East and West Midland Premier Divisions were North Notts, who took the East title by three points from Burton, and Solihull Blossomfield who finished a point clear of Finchfield in the West. All three Warwick University teams won promotion, their 1st X1 taking the East Midland Division 1 title from Barton, while Whitchurch were the runaway winners of West Midland Division 1 ahead of West Bromwich.
There were a staggering half a million visitors to the League's website, maintained as always by Michael Hooper. I always click through all the divisions in the leagues, not concentrating on just those in the top three positions. Newtown, who travel a long way to play their away fixtures, had their best season in West Midland Division 2, and Buxton who also travel long distances, often on treacherous winter roads in the Peak District failed to get a point in East Midland Division 2 but will be back as enthusiastic as ever on September 30th.
Lesley Boyles and Peter Leigh joined the league's committees. My thanks go to Chairman Barry Forrester, League Secretaries Chris Forde, Mike Austin, Julian Brooks and all the Divisional Secretaries who dealt with nearly 4000 matches. Reg Rogers, the league's Worcestershire representative suffered a heart attack in February. His club Old Halesonians did a wonderful job on their website keeping everyone informed of his progress. Reg, who has made an excellent recovery and wishes to thank the many people who sent him cards and messages, will again run East Midland Division 1 next season.
A decade of progress with regard to discipline went into reverse as the red cards and MMOs rose from 28+1 to 39+3 and there was a small increase in the number of yellows. Soar Valley (twice), Melton (twice), Nottingham University (twice), Sikh Union (Coventry) Wednesbury, Reddich and Cannock's 7th X1 all had point(s) deducted for their poor records.
The League Committee welcomed President Alan Grocock and Jonathon Collis of MRHUA to our February meeting to discuss players' attitudes towards umpires during and after a game. The League made it very clear that it would support the umpires associations if they refused to appoint umpires to a particular club and noted that in the South League where this happens the club forfeits the match.
There will not be a formal presentation evening. The pennants are being delivered by the county representatives on the League Committee to the county associations to be presented at their AGMs. The umpires associations have selected the winners of the Fair Play Award - Ashby, and the Sociability Award - West Bridgford.
Our search for more divisional secretaries brought in four volunteers, which means that we can meet the demand for places in the Central League by expanding it from nine to eleven divisions.
The new teams will be:-
Oswestry 1st X1,Ludlow and Ramgarhia (Derby) 2nd X1, Worksop 3rd X1,
and in the Central League Barford Tigers 5,
Barton 4,
Bridgnorth 6,
Burton 6,
Coalville Town 5,
Evesham 4,
Kettering 4,
Lichfield 6,
Olton and West Warwick 6,
Rugby 5,
Stafford 4,
Sutton Coldfield 7,
Sutton Coldfield 8,
Telford 5,
Wednesbury 4,
Whitchurch 4,
Wolverhampton 5.
The League's Rules subcommittee has still to meet but I can inform you that we will be complying (as will all the other regional leagues) with the request from England Hockey that we adopt the English Hockey League rule re eligibility that a team may only contain a maximum of 2 non European Union passport holders.
Peter Cranswick (Hon Secretary) - April 2006