News

Marden Club enjoy Hockey and Horse racing activities

We encourage our Sporting Memories to learn about and play all kinds of sports and this has certainly been true of our Marden Club, based in Kent, in recent weeks as they’ve held themes sessions on Hockey and Horse Racing as you can find out below.

Bringing insight into the world of Hockey

Earlier this month, the Marden Club welcomed Sarah Chapman, a level 3 national outdoor and indoor umpire to their weekly session to share her knowledge of Hockey with the Club members. Sarah is also a level 2 umpire coach, so shared her thoughts on what it takes to officiate a game of Hockey.

Sarah also spoke about her playing days locally for Maidstone Hockey Club and her journey into umpiring once she decided to hang up the hockey stick.

The Club members were intrigued to hear about the challenges of officiating matches, and Sarah was on hand to answer any questions they had. There was great interest from the members around the green, yellow and red cards system operated in Hockey and what offence it would take to be sent off!

After an interesting discussion on the rules and regulations of Hockey, it was then time for the Marden Club members to get active, by trying out some indoor Hockey with the use of indoor equipment.

The members all had a go at controlling the ball with the sticks provided as well as taking shots at goal – with Sarah stepping in to be goalie for the activity!

Getting into the Cheltenham Festival spirit

This week (12 – 15 March) sees the annual running of the Cheltenham Festival, one of the biggest Horse Racing events of the year, and the Marden Club used the festival as their focus for this week’s session.

The Club Members split into quiz teams to take on the special Cheltenham-focused questions, and formed groups names such as ‘Also Rans’, ‘Pump Rooms’ and ‘Last Laugh’. It was the ‘Pump Rooms’ group who came out on top in the quiz!

This was followed by further Horse racing discussion with one member sharing a fabulous photo of a horse which his mother owned, jumping at the races, much to the interest and delight of fellow members. There was also time to listen to a vinyl of ‘They’re Off!’ – which is a Horse Racing themed game produced by the Daily Mirror.

Reflecting on the last few weeks of activities, Sue Eltringham, one of the Facilitators of the Marden Club, said: “We’ve really enjoyed our sessions recently and it was great to have Sarah come along to share her experiences of playing and officiating Hockey.

“To follow that up with this week’s theme of the Cheltenham Festival has meant a busy few weeks for our Club, but it has been so rewarding as I can see all the fun and enjoyment the members have had in recent sessions.”