Western Wildcats Hockey Club

Our Women's 3rd Team take to the road to open their campaign, travelling to Saltcoats to play Argyll (1230). Catriona Ritchie, in her debut game as captain, should take a decent squad and will be keen to kick off what could be a promising season with a win. The 2s, who should also be in action, have an unexpected day off as Dalziel have postponed due to a wedding.

The Men's 1s go back to Peffermill for their penultimate friendly of the pre-season against Grange (1400). They won 4-3 two weeks ago against The Chaps at the same venue and, with a stronger squad this time round, will be keen to improve on that.

Coach Harry Dunlop was looking forward to the game in the light of a highly satisfactory trip south last weekend. "If I could take the squad to Cannock four times a year I would," he said. "It was fantastic for the guys to play against such strong opposition at such a demanding tempo and we'll get real benefits from it. The youngsters have never played at that intensity before and the more experienced players will get a boost from revisiting it. It was a very worthwhile experience all round and I'm delighted with how it all went."

The 3s and 4s play each other in a friendly at the club (1200). Both teams have some extremely exciting young players in their provisional squads for this seasona and this game will give Ally Reid and Matt MacDonald ample opportunity to have a look at these individuals ahead of their respective league programmes.

Finally, the 5s and 6s play a friendly at 1330. Richard Biggins is heroicially organising both teams in the absence of a 5th Team Captain. Any volunteers should apply to the usual address!

Our Women's 2s looked strong last night as they cruised to a 5-0 win over Broomhill Sports Club (coached by Kris Kane) in a friendly at Auchenhowie. Katie Dougherty's outfit see promotion from Division 3 as the least of their ambitions this season and, with a strong squad who are a year older and wiser than last year, that should be well within their grasp.

The draws for the Men's and Women's District Cup and the Men's Reserve Cup have been made. Our Women's 2s are at home to CALA 2s in the preliminary round of the District Cup on Sunday 3rd October. Our Men's 2s play Watsonians 2s in their version of the same trophy. This is also a home game and will be played on Sunday 24th October. In the Reserve Cup, to be played on Satirday 23rd October, the 3s are away to Hillhead 3s, the 4s away to Glasgow University 3s and the 5s are at home to Gordonians 3s.

We are delighted to announce that we are able to offer a specially discounted package on club shorts and socks available from now until the end of September. For just £24 you can buy a pair of our Canterbury branded shorts plus home and away socks, a saving of £9 on what you would normally pay to order online. To take advantage of this excellent offer, please email Roger Jamieson via the Contact section of the site, giving your sizes. It is club policy that ALL members turn up for matches properly attired, so we would recommend that any of you yet to pick up the requisite club kit get in touch with Roger sooner rather than later.

The annual West District Umpires' Association Seminar takes place tonight at Auchenhowie starting at 7pm. This is a useful event which will look at some of the new rule changes and we would encourage anyone interested to attend. 

The Men's 1s got off to a good start yesterday against Cannock, with Ross Hickey putting them one up early on. Despite some good passages of play, though, they were eventually beaten 4-1. One very positive aspect of the game was the opportunity taken by Coach Harry Dunlop to blood a number of youngsters. Indeed, Western finished with six players under 21 on the field. Today's match was a more chastening affair with Western being soundly beaten 6-0.

The 2s had a better day, comfortably seeing off an understrength Clydesdale 2s 6-0 at Titwood this morning. Gary Maitles, Amit Marwaha, Niall Somerville, Niall MacLeod, Ewan O'Neil and Dave Polley got their goals.

The Men's 3s played Clydesdale at Titwood yesterday, winning 6-2 with goals from Barry Kane (2), Alastair Scott (2), Graeme Watson (pen) and Gareth Clunie. A number of youngsters played and every one of them showed up well. Pick of the bunch, though, was pint-sized predator Rob Harewood who ghosted in behind the Clydesdale back four throughout the match and won a very brave penalty in the second half. There is a great deal of potential in our youth set-up right now and the 3s and 4s will definitely see the benefit of it this season if this match is anything to go by.