National Roller Hockey Association

National Training for March

nrha — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:18:20 +0000

Carlos Amaral NRHA’s National Performance Director has announced the National Training Schedule for March. In addition to this he has informed us that the players named in the reduced squads should bring the £100 deposit (cheques made payable to the NRHA) as part of their commitment to play in this year’s Championships. Any player not selected for the final squad will have the £100 deposit refunded. He added that any players withdrawn will lose the deposit.
Groups
Group timetable

Alan Smiley

nrha — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:41:23 +0000

It was with great sadness that we were notified of the death of Alan Smiley on the 20th February.
Alan Smiley in his prime years was one of the fastest forwards in the game who with his bubbly personality always played the game with great passion.
He played during his career, from the 1950’s to the 1970’s, with three main Clubs, Alexandra Palace, Southgate and Folkestone.

He first became an England International when he was picked for the team playing in the European Championships in 1959 at Geneva, Switzerland, and also that year when the England team made a short trip to France.
In 1963 he played for the Alexandra Palace team who represented England at the Coupe De Nations tournament at Montreux, Switzerland, and in 1975 he was recalled back to the England National side when he played in the European Championships staged at Viarregio, Italy.
At club level he played in most of the Country’s league’s and cup competitions.
Some of his achievements were :-
A winners medal with Southgate Rangers in the Kent League Division One 1957-1958 season,
An NRHA Cup winners medal with Folkestone in 1975,
A winners medal for the NRHA National League Div One in 1976 for the Kimber Trophy.
Alan won many other medals in various competitions that he played in during his time in the game.
In the early 80’s North London RHC was formed from Alexander Palace players via Tallacre RHC and Alan continued to play until the early 90’s.
During this time Alan got involved with the National Coaching structure to pass on some of his knowledge and enthusiasm for the sport to youngsters.

Alan’s funeral will take place at the Enfield Crematorium at 2pm on Monday 8th March.

Keith Allen

February National Training

nrha — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:06:50 +0000

During the announcement of this months National Training (20th & 21st) Carlos Amaral National Coaching Director has said that reduced squads for Juniors, Schoolboys, Ladies Under 20 & Ladies Seniors will be announced after February’s National Training. Players named in these reduced squads will be asked to pay the £100 squad deposit (cheques made out to NRHA) at the March National Training session as was done in 2009.

Members Groups
Group Timetable

Refereeing in England

nrha — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:09:53 +0000

On Friday, I saw emails flying around by all and sundry regarding the allocation of referees and the changing of an allocation already published.
It has been resolved.

Billy Wells has taken on the job of Appointing Referees for the CRHR, having been away from Roller Hockey for some time, and is doing the best job that he can do with the resources that he has at his disposal.
Those resources are the number of referees that bother to respond to him when he asks for their availability for a specific weekend.
Those referees who do not respond are not helping their sport or Billy to do his job.
We are all human and some have other things in their lives apart from roller hockey but we need to help Billy do his job by responding to him in a reasonable timeframe.

We are all aware that there are not enough referees in England to cover the amount of Roller Hockey that takes place.
We, therefore, need to progress the standard of those that we have and to recruit more.
This cannot be done overnight or by one man.

Some of the concerns raised in some of the emails on Friday are shared by me.
They are real concerns.
The allocation of referees has been addressed and will never be influenced by the Clubs.

The issue of the rule interpretation, we knew, would be difficult for a while this season and I have had several comments about differing interpretations being used.
I have responded to this by offering to attend any meeting of referees to discuss and agree a consistent interpretation for all.
I put this offer to those raising concerns in the South, the North and the East.
Thus far only the East has taken me up on my offer.
The offer is still open.
If anybody wants to organise a meeting of referees in their area, I am more than willing to attend that meeting to help resolve any refereeing problems caused by the new rules or, in fact, any of the original rules still in place.

The CRHR has now been taken over by the NRHA Executive.
For personal reasons, the previously elected Chairman of the CRHR has been unable to apply the time to drive the organisation forward.
The Chair of the CRHR is now the NRHA Executive.
I am now in the process of formulating a structure for the CRHR which will include the recruitment of new referees, the progression of existing referees and the fast tracking of potential International referees.
It will be a compilation of input from senior members of our sport, Referees, Coaches and Players.

I hope to get it all finalised for presentation by the end of February.

To launch it, I would request that all the referees in the Country meet at The Bushfields Sports Centre, Peterborough on Saturday 20th March at 10am, where we can discuss the proposed structure and put it into practise.

Why Bushfields?
Because it is reasonably central for everybody, is being used for the National Training Weekend on both Saturday and Sunday and, probably, most importantly, there is a room available that we can use without cost.

Without Referees, we have no sport.
Without the introduction of a properly thought out structure for the recruitment and progression of Referees, we may end up with no Referees.

Keith Allen

Two Summer Camps for 2010

nrha — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:06:43 +0000

Carlos Amaral NRHA’s National Performance Director has announce that following a great success of the past Roller Hockey camps,
he will be organising two Summer Camps in conjunction with the NRHA development plan.

The first camp will commence on Friday 6th August and finish on Monday 9th August 2010.
This will be open to the following groups:
Basic Group
Pre Project Group
Ladies Development

The second camp will commence on Friday 13th August and finish on Monday 16th August 2010.
Camp Logo
This will be open to the following groups:
Project 2012
Project 2011
Project 2010
Ladies U20 and Senior

Any players that are not in the National Training List and who are interested in attending Summer Camp 2010 can contact me and I will let them know which camp they can attend.

Farnham’s ND1 Tournament

nrha — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:11:20 +0000

Photo Gordon Morrison

Farnham RHC will hold their annual National Division One tournament in a new venue 10 miles away from their usual centre, the new venue is in Alton, Hants. The matches are the same as listed in the ND1 schedule with the first match Farnham v Peterborough starting at 8.30am.

Revised National Calendar

nrha — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 10:39:40 +0000

Photo Gordon Morrison

Val Conroy NRHA’s National Competitions Secretary recently sent out a revised National Calendar (Issue 4). The new calendar can be downloaded and Val has listed the changes to the revised calendar below:-
1) National training in June is now 5th/6th June, regional training and regional tournaments have been moved to 19th/20th June.
2) National training in August has been moved to 21st/22nd August.
3) Summer Camp 1 is now from 6th – 9th August and Summer camp 2 is now 13th – 16th June.

Knockout Cup

nrha — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:25:02 +0000

This Sunday will see rounds of this years Knockout Cups, Under 13’s, Under 15’s, Under 17’s and under 20’s will compete for a place at the National Cup Finals day in July.
Soham Sports Centre does not allow food to be taken onto the premises when the cafeteria is open. The cafe will be open this Sunday, so please do not attempt to take food onto the premises. Should you wish to take your own food, you will have to eat it in your car.
Soham’s prices are very good and items that can be purchased are tea, coffee, bacon rolls, chips, sausage rolls and more.

New format for National Training Weekend – Saturday’s sessions

nrha — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 20:45:59 +0000

National Training weekend is 16th and 17th January. Player Groups and Groups Timetable Over the past few months I have been working on reorganising my training structure for young players within the National Roller Hockey Association’s national training weekends. Whilst in a perfect world a player should be placed in their own age groups from as young an age as possible, we have to work with many constraints (i.e. numbers, financial costs, rink availability, distance etc.) within English Roller Hockey. Having given this matter much thought I feel that I have settled on a format that will not only serve the needs of today’s players but players for years to come. Format for National Training National training will be split into five sessions: 1. Basic training – 3 hours 2. Pre Project Development Squad – 3 hours 3. Final three years Preparation Squad – 3 hours (project 2012) 4. Final two years Preparation Squad – 4 hours (project 2011) 5. Final year Preparation Squad – 6 hours (project 2010) The 4 hours for the final 2 years preparation will take place on Saturday to ensure that for the Project 2011 works with Project 2012, then on their own and finally with Project 2010 – the cost for these 4 hours sessions will be £15. Project 2010 will have 3 hours on Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday to ensure that this Project can have time with Juniors Squad – the cost for both sessions will be £18. Basic Training These sessions will be adapted for the very young and inexperienced player. We will concentrate on basic skating, stick control and fundamental understanding of the game and rules. Pre Project Development Squads This group is for the more advanced players of any age group. While this group may be sub divided during its time allocation the structure will be the same i.e., covering a higher level of understanding of all aspects of the game. One major asset of this group will be for the development of the player coming into the project late, by allowing them to feel more comfortable and capable whilst they close the ability gap with their peers. Project Development Squads While players are grouped to allow for the successful development of teams for the Schoolboy European Championships, I may at my discretion introduce players above and below the age category to: a) enhance an individual’s development i.e. a younger player b) Strengthen groups for group experience i.e. an older player At all times the groups will constantly be re-assessed and players switched around to suit individual and squad needs. After each European Championship the year groups will automatically be moved up and a new year group introduced always giving more training/rink time to the final one and two year preparation squads. The cost of all other sessions will remain as they are at the moment, which is £12 for each 3hr session and £6 for siblings. Where a player is invited to attend a second session in NTW this cost will also be £6. Carlos Amaral

Graham Woodhead

nrha — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:14:45 +0000

It is with great sadness that the Manchester Roller Hockey Club has to announce the death of their beloved President, Graham Woodhead, who passed away on the 29th of December 2009 peacefully in hospital, with his two daughters Heather and Sharon at his side. He leaves behind his wife Jenny and grandchildren, Aiden, Megan, Estefania, Ruben & Joel.

Graham will long be remembered for his willingness to always be available to assist in anyway or form he could with the new generation and future hockey players of England. He took the role of Club President about 5 years ago, but has been involved in Roller Hockey for much, much longer.

His funeral will take place on the 08/01/2010 in Saint Peters Church in Levenshulme, Stockport Road, Manchester M19 3BS at 14.00 hrs.

Church doors will be open to the public and friends wishing to say goodbye and pay their respects will be most welcome.

As a mark of respect, it would be a very nice gesture to have a moment of silence at any forthcoming games in January.

Chris Freeman