You may remember that this time last year, we were worried that two croquet lawns were soon to be constructed on the Junior pitch (the one between the Bowls area and Trinity Road) which we use for girls football and our under 11 team.

Well, it’s all changed since then and the current favoured location is to put the croquet on pitch 1, just up from the changing rooms, next to the hedge and the telephone mast. I should stress that this is not favoured by us!

As anyone who has been up to the rec on a busy Saturday morning will know, we use all the current space and we would rather the croquet goes somewhere else entirely. But we seem powerless to prevent it. The works are due to begin this summer.

An incredible run of results through March saw HT Lions pick up 4 wins in 4 games, scoring five goals in every game!

They triumphed over Harefield (home and away), Blackstone Spitfires and had a cup win over KCA Rovers.

So, well done to the boys and to the management team of Jones and Jones who won the Manager(s) of the Month award for March.

Here’s hoping the Lions’ roar can lift them to cup victory on 12^th May. 

(Adrian Jones receives the trophy from Secretary Kevin Bennett at the Managers meeting on 20th April)

February was a quiet month because of half term but the Knights are February’s best performing team so our congratulations go to Geoff Hutchinson and Sanj Sharma.

The Knights’ 5-0 win away at Blackstone beat their previous best score (5-1) also against Blackstone and takes them to five wins so far this season.

Keep up the good work boys!

January’s Manager of the Month trophy was awarded at the recent HT Managers Meeting.

The deserved winner was Mark Smith (centre of picture) for steering the Holy Trinity Troopers to their first win of the season, a 4-0 victory over St James Swifts that lifts the mighty Troopers off the bottom of the Cougars league.

It is a fantastic reward for Mark and the Troopers lads who have had to contend with low squad numbers all season.  

Let’s hope the Troopers can march on, further up the table!

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Here is Mark’s match report on that award winning victory:

HT Troopers chalk up their first win of 2012!
On Saturday 28 January 2012, HT Troopers ran out 4-0 winners over St James Swifts in a bit of a thriller to chalk up their first win of the season!  In a much improved start to the match, the Troopers were caught offside numerous times.  This was a clear indication that the boys were attacking well and that they were playing with much more confidence than the previous week against KCA. 

It wasn’t a one-sided match though….far from it!  The Swifts, playing slightly downhill and with the wind behind hit the post twice, nearly benefited from a freak own goal that skimmed the top of a post and had two goals disallowed for off-side – as well as numerous chances which were saved by the excellent Sam Wainman.  Somehow, the first half finished 0-0! 

The second half saw the Troopers get a proper grip on the match – making the wind and slope advantage count and seeing several chances either slide wide of the posts or gathered by the Swifts ‘keeper.  Eventually, in a fabulous 20 minutes for the Troopers, we saw goals from Sam Woolldridge, Rhys Bailes, James Lewis and Darius Adl – with two being set up by Tom Roy and the others set up by James Smith.  With the Swifts flagging, the Troopers were looking for more goals towards the end but just couldn’t find the right shot to beat the Swifts ‘keeper. Ally came very close with yet another excellent cross that, with a touch from any player, would have crossed the line.

Overall, it was a very good team performance with all the boys working hard and thoroughly deserving the win.  I had given each player a couple of performance targets before the game – and pretty much all of the boys achieved or exceeded their targets (although thinking back, I didn’t set anyone the target of scoring a goal, which was a bit remiss of me!).  Man of the Match was very, very difficult this week with so many boys playing their best football of the season.  The whole of the Troopers defence (Sam Wainman in goal, Carl, Charlie, James Smith and Jordan – and with help from Tom and Sam C in the second half) worked really hard in the first half and their efforts were epitomised by Charlie who had the best game of his Troopers’ career so far – making really good tackles, showing a cool head when on the ball and tracking straight back on the rare occasions he was beaten by a Swifts player.  So the Man of the Match award went to Charlie – on behalf of the whole defence but also for his excellent individual performance.  Well done Charlie!

Over Christmas and the turn of the year, one of our HT team coaches Benedict Mwendwa visited Kenya with his family.

Now that many of our teams have had new kit this season, we had some spares of the red/blue reversible football shirts and gave these to Benedict to take out with him.

Two sets of shirts were given to the school football team at Kyangala Secondary School – located in a rural village in Machakos, Kenya – who were the recipients of the football kit.  Click on any of these small pictures to enlarge them.

They are grateful for the kit which the team really needed. You can find out more about the school by visiting http://www.kyangalaschool.ac.ke/

Do notice the quality of school pitches that they play on! Maybe Hazlemere Rec is not so bad after all!

Kyangala is a very needy area and Benedict has set up a charity which is supporting the village with water, health and education projects. You can learn more about our work by visiting http://www.kyangala-trust.org.uk/

HT Mariners took December’s Manager of the Month trophy for their 100% record in that month.

Good wins against Chalfont (3-1) and St Josephs (5-1) established second place in the league going into the new year.

Keep up the good work Mariners!

The trophy was presented to Mariners’ coach John Dashwood following a thorough training session on 7th Jan.

Seven year old Luca Massaro will be a match day mascot at the Boxing Day fixture between Wycombe Wanderers and Exeter City (kick off at Adams Park is 3pm)

Luca who attends Hazlemere C Of E School plays for Holy Trinity Dragons (under 8s) and was voted their Most Improved Player of the Season for 2010-11.

The other team he supports is Chelsea and his favourite Wycombe players are Scott Rendell and Dave Winfield. His hobbies are playing football and tennis plus riding his bike – hopefully not at the same time!

Enjoy your special day Luca. Hope you bring good luck to the Wanderers in the form of three points.

Holy Trinity Juniors FC held it’s annual Christmas party at the Ken Williams Memorial Pavilion at Hazlemere Rec on Saturday 17^th December.

This was an opportunity for managers, coaches, helpers and parents to relax together away from the touchline. Clubs like Holy Trinity are hugely indebted to the “army” of helpers who keep everything running smoothly. It takes a considerable effort from many, many people. The Christmas party was an opportunity to thank four of these stars, in particular, for years of dedicated hard work and they were each presented a bottle of “Holy Trinity” wine as a thank you!

Mo Zouine (second from left) was manager of our under 13 team  HTTroopers until he stepped down earlier this season. Mo was also the Club’s official photographer, recording many of the club’s events such as Hazlemere Sixes, the end-of-season Barbecue and squad photos for use in calendars.

Karen Barr (third from right) was the Manager of our under 16 girls team “HT Angels” until they sadly folded earlier this season due to lack of players. Karen helps out at many club functions, most notably slaving behind the barbecue grills at the annual awards day. Karen is currently helping Chris Bis with the under 6 Academy, helping to pass on her enthusiasm and knowledge to a new generation of footballers.

John Horton (third from left) ran the HT Academy and HT Academy United teams for many years until they “retired” after under 16 level. Following that, John was our vice-chairman for several years before stepping down at the last AGM. John is now a director of Hazlemere Sports Association Ltd which runs the Pavilion, so the club are able to keep in close contact with John through events like this Christmas party.

Russell Thomas (second from right) is “Mr Holy Trinity”. He’s coached a number of teams through the years (many years) and is always thinking up new ways to benefit the club. For several years Russ was our Chairman before stepping down at the last AGM to concentrate on being a director of HSAL like John. Russ continues to manage our u16 team “HT Thistle”.

Also featured in this picture are the hardworking Club Secretary Kevin Bennett ( far left) and Club Chairman Paul Baldock (far right)

So, thank you to everyone associated with making the club as successful as it is, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

Congratulations to Jhelanie and Mike for winning November’s Manager of the Month trophy.

The jubilant HT Jedi stormed to two wins in November keeping the lads in contention for honours this season.

We hope to see more of those Jedi mind tricks in the New Year. Let the Force be with you.

Want to help your club?

Looking for a club for your child?

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