For details of fixtures from the 1997/8 season please see the 1997/8 Fixtures List.
For full details of the "Touring and Drinking Club" trips please refer to the CTDC News Page.
31st Aug 98: Notting Hill Carnival. An official social, this one, not a pseudo work event like the last glove-making party. Martin, Sara, Mark, Liz and Rob gathered together with Martin's sister, one of Sara's friends and Electra and Juliet from the New Zealand Womens team for a great day out. The costumes were amazing, and we managed to entrench ourselves by a pub - aka constant and reliable source of alcohol - on the main Carnival route, so we were all happy.
22nd Aug 98: Glove-making party. We held our third glove-making party at Sara's, and in terms of attendees it was the most successful ever. In terms of number of gloves made, however, it was the least successful, as between us we actually managed to make not a single glove. Still, a good time was had by all, so maybe we'll actually make some next time.
18th Aug 98: Novice Night. Chesham Octopush Club held its summer Novice Night last night, and from first impressions it looks like being the most successful we have ever had. Not only did it attract the greatest-ever number of potential new recruits (twelve), but also the standard was the highest we have ever seen. We put together a match for the last twenty minutes, with six newcomers and two regulars on each side (the rest of the regulars subbing on-the-fly), and the resulting game was a joy to watch, with many of the newcomers playing as if they had been playing for months, rather than minutes. Bright days ahead?
27th Jun 98: CTDC *last* in Bussum tournament. See here for a full report of how we made up for it.
14th Jun 98: Sara wins bronze at World Championships.
The Great Britain Womens Masters Underwater Hockey Team, including our own Sara Grenside,
has won bronze at the 1998 World Championships in San Jose, California, USA. The
tournament was won overpoweringly by South Africa, who conceded only one goal all week (to
Great Britain and scored by Sara), but the GBWM were unlucky to lose in the semi-final to
a USA team that spent most of the game in its own defensive area. Check out Sara's 
web site for a full
report of the tournament as seen through the eyes of the GBWM.
9th May 98: CTDC second in Orkney tournament. See here for a full report of what made us travel for two and a half days for six hours of Octopush.
12th Apr 98: Three Chesham players selected for UK Barbarians for
Maastricht and South Africa. Ed, Sara and Martin have been selected to represent the
UK Barbarians in their trips to Maastricht over the Mayday Bank Holiday weekend (2nd-4th
May) and also for the trip to South Africa for the South African Nationals
("Interclubs") at the end of November.
17th Mar 98: Sara to represent Great Britain in 1998 World Championships.
Sara Grenside has been selected to represent
Great Britain as a member of the Great Britain Womens Masters Underwater Hockey Team at
the 1998 World Championships in San Jose, California in June. It is the first time that a
Chesham player has been selected for international duty, and naturally it is a great
honour for the club. The upward flight of the club continues!
20th-22nd Feb 98: CTDC fourth in Slovenia tournament. The first outing of the Chesham Octopush Touring and Drinking Club. Click here to see the full report - the Full Monty, no less - of what we got up to.
16th Feb 98: E&C League: joint top, third on goal difference. Despite losing 5-2 to an enormous Dunstable team in its first-ever league match, Chesham followed that result with a 3-2 win over Watford to put us back on an even keel. A home match against the Leamington Triads was scheduled for yesterday, but Leamington failed to turn up. Under BOA rules this would be a default 6-0 win for Chesham, and would have put us top of the league. However, Leamington had simply forgotten about the match, and to claim the default victory would not really have been in the spirit of this league. We look forward to welcoming them to Chesham in the near future.
23th Jan 98: Chesham joins the Eastern & Central League. For the first time in its history, Chesham has become a league club. Chesham will remain a non-registered club as far as the BOA is concerned, but will be taking part in an informal set of league matches with Dunstable, Leamington, Northampton, Slough and Watford. First game is against Dunstable on the 2nd February; details of all fixtures can be found on the Fixtures List.
22nd Dec 97: Chesham Leisure Centre closed: no Octopush session.
15th Dec 97: Match against Putney No Martin for this one, as he was working in Amsterdam all week. However, the visit of Charles' former club was a great boost for our new centre-mid, as well as being a chance to catch up on the gossip with his former team mates. The match was apparently quite rough and tumble, with ringers on both teams being the order of the day, but Chesham managed to run out winners by about 7 goals to 5. This was our first win in these "pool cooling" matches - maybe Martin ought to be away more often!
1st Dec 97: CHESHAM REPRIEVED! This evening Chesham Octopush Club's players decided unanimously that the club will not fold at the end of this year, but that the remaining members would keep the flag waving and the flame burning throughout 1998 and beyond. This has been partly due to the level of encouragement received from our visiting teams, but primarily due to the determination of all members that they did not want to see the demise of the club at which they learned to play this most enjoyable of games. It was decided that Martin would continue as Manager, Ian would take over from Toby as Treasurer, Sara would design a club logo, Ed would identify appropriate club colours and the team as a whole would investigate the possibility of starting an annual Chesham Octopush Club tournament. The recovery is under way - watch this space!
1st Dec 97: Match against Henley It was good to see Geoff Hutt and Co back on Chesham's territory for a re-run of Chesham's first ever inter-club match back in 1991. That time we didn't score a single goal, but this time we fared rather better. Playing uphill in the first half we went into the second half one goal behind, at 3-4. We equalised almost immediately, and might reasonably have expected to win, but then we lost Ed with cramp and this left a hole that we weren't able to fill. The final score was 7-4 to Henley, so thanks to them for a great game, and especially to the Henley player who travelled more than sixty miles to play us. We'll see you again soon.
24th Nov 97: Match against Northampton Northampton are well known as being one of the top half-dozen clubs in the country, and they certainly proved this with a slaughtering of all-comers at the recent Nautilus tournament. It was, therefore, with great pleasure that we welcomed them to Chesham. The Northampton squad was mostly a B-team, as requested, but it also included a couple of A-team players to give the B-team some stability, so the 3-3 result was a great credit to Chesham, as well as being a great chance to get to know some faces that we would't otherwise get to see. We've been invited to Northampton for a return match, so we hope to be able to take them up on that sometime in the New Year.
17th Nov 97: Match against Watford The first of our "pool cooling" matches went well today, and we were unlucky to lose 6-7 to a rather subdued Watford team that was very fortunate to have Peter on top form. Sara continued to improve, and she put in three of our six goals once she had got her positioning right. Ian was in fine form, at one point successfully fending off three white bats with not a single black bat in sight, but ultimately we were let down by our inability to provide him with adequate support. However, it was a very enjoyable game, and we can look forward to the next with enthusiasm.
27th Oct 97: It is with great regret that we have to announce that due to insufficient numbers, Chesham Octopush Club will fold at the end of 1997. However, we intend to go out with a bang rather than a whimper, and so will be inviting other teams over to play matches for the rest of the club's functioning life. See Fixtures List for details of matches, or for further information about Chesham Octopush Club itself, please contact either Martin Reed (Manager) on 0374 276333 or Ian Ringham (Treasurer) on 01494 764264.
13th Oct 97: Chesham Leisure Centre closes for the Christmas break on the evening of Sunday 21st December 1997, and reopens on the morning of Monday 29th December 1997. Consequently, there will be no Octopush session on Monday 22nd December 1997.
20th Aug 97: Chesham Leisure Centre is closed on Bank Holiday Monday, 25th August, and there will be no Octopush session on this date.
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