Wednesday 17th August important league updates
1) Clubs can now see on GMS an upload of fixtures from England Hockey. These fixtures are locked for clubs and you cannot allocate or add venues or times etc. The reason for this is East can now look to make some of the changes clubs have requested. Once confirmed England hockey can release the fixtures for clubs to action.
2) Whilst clubs can now see fixtures, everyone needs to be aware that a club has submitted an appeal against the league they have been placed in for next season. This means the East Management Board will convene an appeal panel to consider the appeal. If upheld a substantial rewrite of leagues and fixtures will need to take place. This will affect both the mens and women’s leagues. Hence our advice to all clubs is not to invest in sorting your fixtures yet. As soon as the appeal can be considered an update will be shared. For 12 team leagues the start date for the season remains the 24th September
3) We can confirm this season all leagues will use the GMS team sheets to record match outcomes. All players will need to be registered. If a transfer is not involved get all your players on now. Hopefully many were registered last season.
4) As yet the player transfer system on GMS is not operational. There will however already be players who need to change clubs with the new season approaching. England hockey as a stop gap have said please utilise the GMS help desk to progress the movement of players.
Letter to all East League clubs 2 July 22
Dear All,
This is a circular letter to all Liaison Officers for the East Men’s & Women’s Leagues, to introduce everyone to the 2022-23 season, after some of the chaos of last season.
Firstly, Neil Liversedge has stepped down from his position as secretary of the League Management Committee, after 12 years of well-organised management of the East which I believe everyone has appreciated. We thank him.
My name is Chris Perry, and it has fallen to me to take over as Secretary: it will be a tough task to follow Neil, but I am delighted that Rosemary Prince has agreed to continue as League Chair, also with 12 years’ experience in the role: her guidance will be well-needed.
For those of you who do not know me, I have been around East hockey a long time. My club is Welwyn Garden City, where I have played for over 50 years. During the 1970s I played many times for Hertfordshire and some games for the East. I have been fully involved in East Vets hockey for over 30 years. I have been an East League Manager for 10 years, taking responsibility for the lowest leagues in SW & SE Quadrants. I have played little in the last 2 years – too unfit during Covid – but threatening to play for the Club’s bottom team this year! For many years I have umpired at least one senior game every week. I have the experience to listen to the problems of all the East Clubs.
A year ago, I was part of a small sub-committee giving feed-back on the new EH Rules/League Guidance, but must confess I will need to re-read these. I understand that there will be only some minor amendments this season to the wording, rather than substantive changes. It is vital all post holders in clubs read these rules which your East League reps will apply and clubs will need to follow.
Please feel free to contact me with any difficulties you have: I still work (for another year) 3 days a week, and may not be able to answer a phone call immediately, but my email is always on. My contact details are at the end of this letter.
Due to the new EH structure, there is no longer any requirement for an AGM. However, we have decided upon continuing with our annual Presentation Day, at Letchworth HC. With apologies for the late notice, this has been arranged for Sunday 17 July at 2.00pm. All clubs are required to arrange for the attendance of a club representative where any team is a League Winner, to collect their trophy. There is a fine for non-attendance. We provide a sumptuous buffet! Clubs where no team has won a trophy are also welcome with it being a good day to sort answers to any hockey league related questions.
Below is a list of the League Winners
| EML Premier | Norwich City 1 | EWL Premier | Bishops Stortford 1 | |
| EML Division 1N | Spalding 1 | Division 1N | Bury St Edmunds 1 | |
| EML Division 1S | Old Loughtonians 2 | Division 1S | Letchworth 1 | |
| EML Division 2NE | Norwich City 2 | Division 2NE | Norwich City 2 | |
| EML Division 2NW | St Ives 1 | Division 2NW | Spalding 1 | |
| EML Division 2SE | Colchester 1 | Division 2SE | Chelmsford 3 | |
| EML Division 2SW | Hertford 1 | Division 2SW | Stevenage 1 | |
| EML Division 3NE | Norwich City 3 | Division 3NE(N) | Loddon 1 | |
| EML Division 3NW | Ely City 1 | Division 3NE(S) | Sudbury 2 | |
| EML Division 3SE | Witham 1 | Division 3NW | Newmarket 1 | |
| EML Division 3SW | Bishops Stortford 2 | Division 3SE | Chelmsford 4 | |
| EML Division 4NE | Bury St Edmunds 4 | Division 3SW | St Albans 4 | |
| EML Division 4NW | Long Sutton 2 | Division 4NE(N) | Norwich Dragons 5 | |
| EML Division 4SE | Chelmsford 4 | Division 4NE(S) | Harwich & Dovercourt 1 | |
| EML Division 4SW | Letchworth 3 | Division 4NW | Cambridge South 4 | |
| EML Division 5NE(N) | Watton 1 | Division 4SE | Chelmsford 5 | |
| EML Division 5NE(S) | Colchester 3 | Division 4SW | St Albans 5 | |
| EML Division 5NW | Cambridge Nomads 3 | Division 5NE(N) | Norwich City 6 | |
| EML Division 5SE | Tower Hamlets 1 | Division 5NW | Cambridge South 5 | |
| EML Division 5SW | Royston 2 | Division 5SE | Colne 1 | |
| EML Division 6NW | Spalding 5 | Division 5SW | Bedford 5 | |
| EML Division 6SE | Old Loughtonians 6 | Division 6SE | Bishops Stortford Acolytes | |
| EML Division 6SW | West Herts 5 | Division 6SW | Broxbourne 4 | |
| EML Division 7SE | Basildon 2 | Division 7SW | Bishops Stortford 7 | |
| EML Division 7SW | Southgate Adelaide 2 | |||
| EML Division 8SW | Southgate Adelaide 3 |
We are hoping that the League Managers from last season will all remain in place: any changes will be notified as soon as possible, with a full contact list. Please ensure they have your and your captains’ contact details: they should be your first contact for any questions or difficulties: some of them have much more league management experience than me!
I am sure we all found GMS challenging initially. There is now a new East website back up and running (https://east.englandhockey.co.uk/adult-leagues-competitions) so we will be able to post information here going forward. GMS however will not be going away: for example, Team Sheets will apply this year, and will have to be entered via GMS. Please make sure all your players are registered; there is no need to repeat registrations from last season, but please remove any who are no longer with your club.
Last season, the leagues and fixture schedules were all produced by EH, and there were some issues over which we had no control. We have been given greater input for the new season with particularly, Richard Munns wrestling with the EH spreadsheets, currently up to version 6! This has now been submitted to EH, who will publish the leagues and fixtures (on GMS) shortly. The season will begin for most teams on the 24 September, though due to non-standard league sizes a few leagues start on 17 September.
For those of you in the bottom league in your respective quadrant, you may be aware that EH Rules now provide for “Development Sides”, which do not play for any points but have extra flexibilities. We would like to offer the opportunity to East clubs to submit development sides for the 2023/24 season. We will explain and discuss how this will work at the presentation day meeting on the 17 July.
Indoor hockey: this has now come under the auspices of our regional league committee, and Ben Whibley is the East contact. He has asked me to publicise the dates: qualifying is 10 & 11 December, then on 17 & 18 December, at Norwich. Ben’s contact details are: b.whibley@hotmail.com. He will be pleased to hear from you, but details are also on the following link: https://bit.by/3uttl5N. Please ensure that you arrange early for any postponement of your usual League Matches: he advises you consider re-arranging to an earlier Sunday.
I look forward to meeting some of you on 17 July, but repeat that you can raise any issues with me at any time: I may not be able to answer your problem, but will know someone who can!
Chris Perry 02 July 2022
07979 693518
As of the 2021/22 season East Hockey is responsible for all local adult competitions & hockey activity in the Area introducing new leagues and standardised regulations.
Adult Leagues consist of both men and women’s sections. There are 26 men’s and 24 women’s league, spilt into local areas.
The top teams are playing in the Premier division and Divisions 1 North and South. Regional leagues then cover the South East, North East, South West and North West.
Please note the Grade of the divisions your teams are playing in, as this will impact how the league regulations affect each team. EHL divisions are Grade 1 and Area divisions are Grades 2 to 5. There will be a new Game Management System (GMS) in place and all of the fixtures for all areas will be entered into this. Club and team contacts will have access to the relevant parts of the GMS, and full training will be given. Clubs will need to enter venues and times for all fixtures within a given timescale. The system will also incorporate the appointment of officials.
An important part of this system is that every player will need to register on the system and this will form the basis for online teamsheets for every game, irrespective of area or level of the game. This player registration will ensure that a fair selection policy is maintained, guided by the regulations, and a transfer process if players wish to move clubs.
Fixtures for the new season can be found here http://matches.englandhockey.co.uk