Cliftonville Veterans
By Nick Alder
The Senators year always starts in May, when the annual pilgrimage to either Brussels, or this year, Breda in Holland occurs. The Senators have been going on annual tour for over 20 years now and still enjoy the camaraderie and enjoyment that goes with meeting old friends and new. This years trip saw Ville and Herne Bay join together as each party had seen late withdrawals affecting their ability to send a team by themselves, which meant that there was a large enough pool to choose from for each game. Members of the Ville contingent were James Goatcher, Nick Alder, Paul Cobb, Stuart Ballard, Adam Wilton, Matt Westby, the brothers Lambert, Jonathon, Martyn from Scotland, and Simon from London, and we were delighted to once again join up with Hannes and Markus from Mannheim. For those of us old enough to remember trips to Ider Oberstein and Weinheim with the club, they will remember Hannes as one of the youngsters from those days but despite the beer, fags and women, Hannes has not changed much over 20+ years.
Whilst the plan was great, thinking that we could juggle the team due to the quality of the opposition, the Senators experienced something they had never experienced before on tour, in that they lost every game on Ascension Thursday and whilst three were by the odd goal, they did lose 4-0 in the short period of 25 minutes to one of the teams. Al least it did not dampen the spirits for an excellent night out in Breda with all of the Jazz bands playing in the ancient city square.
Friday was a new day and at last a draw to start the day before achieving a win, and another win, and a third win to round off the day, meant that the spirits had lifted and the beer kitty was certainly drank dry as the evening's festivities started at the Prinsenbeek Club Ground where an excellent 4 course meal awaited us, before then either going into the town or going back to the hotel for one or two nightcaps.
The third day of a tournament is always interesting to see whether you still have 11 players who can actually walk onto a hockey pitch. let alone try and run (well we never used to do much of that anyway!), but with the combined resources, we managed to get out onto the pitch and despite stiff limbs managed to end the tournament without being beaten again and notched up 2 more wins and a draw. This put us in comfortable mid table and then saw the team depart to the far flung reaches of Europe. Nick's car stayed behind for the presentation and then urged on by the Lamberts to try and catch an earlier ferry, there was almost enough momentum to fly the Channel rather then taking the boat. The tour bus will recongregate for Brussels this year.
Ashford always hold a pre-season Veterans tournament in September and Ville returned proudly as the reigning champions (we still can't remember how we achieved that) with a somewhat interesting side including an honorary member of the side in the person of the Canterbury Ladies Physio and former Men's 1st XI captain, Dan George, and our very own Peter Pan, Vice President Robin Fleet. Put in a somewhat difficult pool, Ville struggled at first, and certainly paid for beating Canterbury last year, as they took pleasure in exacting their revenge by giving Ville a bit of a drubbing, but somehow Ville managed to get to the Semi-final stage where they were eliminated.
The only other games that the Senators now play is in the Reeves & Co Kent Veterans Cup, which saw them drawn away to Welcome in the 1st round, and despite some nervous moments they ran out 4-1 winners with a hat-trick from Alex Taylor, and one from Stuart Ballard. It was also good to see the evergreen Clive Jones returning to the club colours for what he exclaimed out of breath would once again be his last game. This led to Ville being at home in the quarter final against Old Williamsonions, and things looked great as goals from Dan McGrath and Dave Burney had Ville 2-0 up within the first 15 minutes, and the Senators dominating play. That however was the high water mark, as Ville conceded a goal just before half time and despite Julian Pile in goal making a welcome return to the Senators team along with Gary Ingoldsby & Rob Garnier, OW's came back and stole the match with 2 goals in the last 10 minutes. Still there is always next season.
The Senators has always been a conglomerate of players who have given something to the Club over the years, rather then the first team of X years ago, but the main purpose is to enjoy playing hockey, without being too serious, and upholding the great reputation of Cliftonville throughout the Hockey world at large.