Welcome to the home of RAF Hockey on the web: We are now building up to the outdoors Inter Services tournament to be held at Aldershot Garrison on 13-14 Mar 12. All of the teams are in the preparation phase, with training sessions and practice games being played, tactics being planned and new combinations of players being tested under match conditions. It is an exciting time of the year as the adrenalin starts to flow with the Inter Services not too far away now and I believe that RAF Hockey can look forward to the tournament and I know that we have the squads to compete strongly for all 5 titles. Looking back at the Indoors Inter Services held in Nov 11, there were some outstanding performances, but pride of place has to go to the Men’s Under 23s. No-one gave them much of a chance, having the bare minimum squad of 6 players, but they gelled superbly as a team and produced 2 excellent performances to beat both the RN and Army 4-3 to win the trophy, scoring the winning goal against the Army that gave them the trophy after the final whistle had blown from a penalty corner. The Senior Men lost 8-5 to the Army in a game that could have gone either way, but were comprehensively outplayed by the best team in the tournament, the RN who triumphed 7-2 and lifted the trophy. The Ladies beat the RN 5-0 and pushed the Army team hard before ultimately paying the price for not converting their many chances, losing 5-1. The Men’s Masters put up a valiant defence of their crown, drawing 2-2 with the RN and 4-4 with the Army who clinched the trophy by defeating the RN.

Due to stations’ unavailability in Oct 11, the Inter Station Indoors tournament is being played later than usual at Aldershot Garrison Sports Centre on Mon 30 Jan 12. The AGM of the RAFHA will be held during the tournament and I look forward to seeing all of the players, umpires and officials at the tournament and hearing your ideas of how the RAFHA can continue the development of RAF hockey at all levels of the game. The support of our sponsors is key to this and we are very fortunate that both ISS Defence and Thales Group UK have reconfirmed their sponsorship deals with RAF Hockey for 2012-13. Their involvement with and support of RAF Hockey is welcomed and I look forward to hosting representatives from both companies at Aldershot Garrison during the Inter Services tournament in Mar 12.

You may be aware that our President, Air Chief Marshal Sir Simon Bryant, is leaving the Service in Apr 12. On behalf of all of us involved in RAF Hockey, I would like to thank Sir Simon for his invaluable contribution as our President over the last few years, particularly with his hosting of our sponsors and his active and vocal support of the teams at the Inter Services tournaments he has attended despite his exacting work schedule. I hope that we can give him a fitting send off by triumphing in the Inter Services in March. I am delighted to be able to announce that Air Vice Marshal Greg Bagwell has agreed to become our new President, taking up the post after the Inter Services tournament in March. Air Vice Marshal Bagwell still plays hockey regularly for Marlow HC Veterans and is looking forward to meeting players, umpires and officials over the next few months and to getting involved with RAF Hockey.

Finlay McLean

Group Captain

Chairman RAF Hockey Association