Stroud Hockey Club are celebrating their 90th anniversary this season and they are hoping it will be a campaign that will live long in the memory.

Whatever happens on the pitch over the next seven or eight months, the club will have an end-of-season party to remember!

“We usually get something like 60 to 80 people turn up for the celebrations at the end of the season but we expect to get double that this time around,” said Club Official Matt Watts.

“We’ll be inviting former players, families and friends and it should be great fun.”

The signs are good that the club will have more to celebrate than just their 90th birthday at the end of April.

On the pitch the club are upwardly mobile with the men’s 1st team clinching promotion back into the De Cymru and The Marches 1 division of the GoCrea8 League at the end of the last season.

The men’s 3rds also won promotion to The Marches 1, where they will now lock horns with the club’s 2nd team this season.

There are also plans to run a men’s 4th team to build on the club’s successful junior development programme.

The women’s section have also set up a 3rd team, the first time in the club’s history that they have fielded three ladies’ league teams.

The ladies 1st team has over the years flirted with the North Division, a level above the local and regional leagues, and hope to fight their way back into it this season.

The picture is just as encouraging in the juniors where there are close on 100 members, with some of the players performing at county level and joining the senior teams when they become old enough.

The club doesn’t just have impressive youngsters but some impressive veterans too, with several older members playing in the Gloucestershire veterans’ side.

Simon Mason, who was a goalkeeper for England in the Olympics of 1996, 2000 and 2004, was also a young Stroud player, and many national league players have played at the club on their way up or way down.

Watts, 32, performs an important role for the club off the field where he has more jobs than George Osborne!

His job titles are match secretary, fixture secretary and liaison officer and while we all want a mild winter, he is hoping for one more than most.

“My life becomes a lot more difficult when matches get postponed,” said Watts, who plays for the club’s 3rds and also umpires. “League rules mean that you have to rearrange the games within a certain time period and that takes a lot of organising so, yes, the one thing I don’t want is a bad winter!”

Stroud play all their matches on the astroturf at Stratford Leisure Centre and their HQ is the Crown and Sceptre pub in Stroud.

While happy with the way things work, Watts admits that the club would love a place of their own that they could call home.

“We’d love to have our own clubhouse and own pitches,” he said. “It’s on our to-do-list even though we’re very well treated where we are. It would improve the club spirit and allow more of the teams to watch each other’s matches.”

Watts joined the club when he moved to the area 10 years ago. He had a spell in the 2nds but is now happy to play as a utility player in the recently promoted 3rd team.

“I’ll play anywhere from centre back to left back to wing and in midfield,” he said. “I want to keep playing for as long as I can. We’ve got people playing at the club who are in their 50s and 60s, it’s a great family sport.”

One of the players to have inspired Watts is Rob Fynn, the club’s head coach and qualified umpire who helps organise the junior section of the club.

“He gives up so much of his time for the club,” said Watts. “He coaches and now plays regularly for the 2nds with an occasional game for the 1sts. Club level sport wouldn’t exist without volunteers at all levels of the game giving up their time to keep the sports they love alive.”

With people like Fynn and Watts around, the future of Stroud Hockey Club looks very bright indeed.