Sunday saw Havering Hockey Club host the first 'Celebration of Hockey' event at Campion school. This involved junior players from two other local clubs joining the Havering Minis for a morning of fun games.

Lee Bennett, head of youth development at Havering Hockey Club said "I came up with the idea at the hockey finals day earlier this year where I sat and watched GB players playing against each other in a competitive match. It got me thinking about how the animosity always seems to be there in local teams derby's and that I didn't want that for the minis developing and learning hockey. For me it was important more important to get them playing matches against players of the same age and similar experience levels"

Over 50 children from Havering, Romford and Thurrock Hockey clubs turned up, were broken into three equal age groups (5/6, 7/8/9 & 10/11/12/13) and teamed up with players from each team to play in a series of friendly matches. For the three head coaches the results didn't matter - instead the focus was on encouraging the children to have fun and work with players from different clubs to be an effective team.

Havering Hockey club have now finished for the season, but will be returning to minis training on the 20th August and are aiming to run another 'Celebration of hockey' event as part of the England hockey initiative #hockeyfest on 10th September 2017. For more details please email (haveringhockeyclub@googlemail.com).

They will also be at the Havering Townshow on 27th and 28th August - why not pop along and find out more about the club and how you can get involved in hockey.