Sparticans Celebrate 10 Years as a Team
By Simon Fitch
Saturday saw the SHC Sparticans celebrate ten years of fun and friendship on and off the pitch.
After enjoying our birthday message from Giselle Ansley, who judged our Lockdown Bake off in the days we were forced temporarily from the pitch, team players past and present came to Sugden Road for festivities at 5pm.
Anniversary arranger Fitchy debriefed the assembled masses on the last decade, based on nominations for the Match of All Matches sent in by Sparticans old and new. Umpires and supporters were toasted, along with absent friends.
We then feasted on birthday cake lovingly prepared by Cindy Iffland, thank you, and cut by our Founding Father, Paul Ronnie Whelan and our Captains, Richard Curtis, Simon Fitch and Andrew Bell.
The Top 10 games from our first ten years were:
10. Back on the pitch on Easter Saturday after the final covid lockdown. 22 Sparticans releasing three months of frustrations. Warm down in groups of six on Giggs Hill Green.
9. The day we caught the train to Battersea Park, beat Wanderers (we think) and detoured, for many hours, to the Falcon at Clapham Junction to reflect on our success.
8. Surbiton 8, NPL 0 in the final rearranged game of the 2021/2 season. Which won us the league, on the day of the End of Season party. Which was some party…
7. Surbiton 5, Reigate Priory 2 during the 2020/1 season, a solid thrashing of the league leaders featuring Richard ‘the Gaffer’ Curtis’s last goal for the team.
6. Cranleigh away in around 2017. We actually lost this game but all in all a hugely eventful day out on and off the pitch…
5. Our Cup games (multiple) including a significant upset victory at Knole Park away, a shoot out victory last season, and the final pre-lockdown game vs Purley, when our captain had to arrange umpires for the home team, who then expertly took charge of the game which we comfortably won.
4. Our 2-1 victory vs the M5s in autumn 2022, winning after a certain former Spartican missed a stroke in his private battle against his Dad, ‘Save It’ Lee Creaser…
3. The first Sparticans game, played at Bisham Abbey away (an auspicious venue for a first attempt). Which included the first ever Spartican goal by Juan Ruiz. Into his own net…
2. Teddington, home, in the 2021/2 season. 4-1 down with 12 minutes left. We won 6-4. Most accurately described by one of our number as ‘the most fun I’ve ever had on a hockey pitch’.
1. The Siege of Sanderstead – autumn 2019. Sparticans 3, Sanderstead 1. Against a team who had not lost for three years or however long they’d let us know about, a superb team performance upset the odds, and seemingly everyone in South East London. Unforgettable scenes at Caterham School…
Our thanks go to everyone at SHC who has supported the Sparticans so far, including umpires, match tea and bar gurus and many more. We look forward to much more fun to come…
Sparticans at their 10th birthday celebrations on Saturday