GKT HOCKEY CLUB

ALUMNI NEWSLETTER

July 2012

Hello and welcome to the first Alumni Newsletter (in its current guise) not written by Karny. Yes,

after seven glorious years at GKT, Karny has finally decided to stop prolonging his degree and

graduated. He looks back at his time here later on in the newsletter.

Karny is just one of many players who will unfortunately be leaving us this summer. On behalf of

GKT Hockey Club, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the leavers on

completing their degrees and wish them every success in the future. Hopefully your association

with GKT Hockey won’t end and we’ll see you all in the near future. Until then, hopefully this

newsletter will make you feel like you never left.

It’s been an excellent first half of 2012 for the hockey club. All 3 teams were pushing for

promotion in their respective leagues, we dominated NAMS both on and off the pitch (reaching

the final of the plate and the cup in the process), and we had an incredible AGM.

I’d like to thank everyone who has contributed to this newsletter, particularly the Old Boys. If

anyone else would like to contribute, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. But for now, sit back

and enjoy this newsletter.

Foreword

Saarth Shiralkar, Alumni Officer

A Message from

the Club Captain

Joe Keighley, Club Captain

I just wanted to start off by saying a massive thank you to

everyone at GKT Hockey Club for what, in my completely

unbiased opinion, has been one of the best years this club

has seen in recent times. Excellent work from all of the

committee, especially your 3 captains, helped this year see more integration between teams

resulting in a much better 'squad' mentality throughout the club, better training which reflected

itself with some excellent results on the pitch and socials which reached the appropriate levels of

ridiculousness. I hope that my legacy of hydration stations, fun buses and a kit which looks like it

was actually designed for men will live on for years to come.

I would like to take this opportunity also to congratulate your new committee. I'm sure we're all

in for another splendid year.

Good luck to all of you, and have a good summer. I miss you already and look forward to seeing

you all again at Fresher's Trials in the new year.

Love to you all.

UH Season Review

Jason Gupta, Fixtures Secretary

This season’s annual United Hospitals Tournament was held once again at our fortress, Honor

Oak Park. The competition pits the five 1st

XI medical teams in London against each other in a

round robin format held over two weekends in late March. After securing BUCS promotion and

reaching the semi finals of the ULU Cup, GKT were in for a great shout to add more silverware to

the trophy cabinet.

GKT opened the tournament with a difficult fixture against RUMS. Having lost the initial meeting

between the sides in the ULU league, although having gone on to defeat RUMS in the ULU Cup

quarter final, GKT were full of confidence going into the fixture. With our influential skipper and

keeper Dan Cromb missing however, the task would not be easy. Unfortunately RUMS came out

on top after taking their chances, inflicting a 2-0 defeat, leaving GKT with an uphill struggle in the

competition. The grounds man’s gift of a plethora of orange juice, unclaimed from a school fun

day did manage to soothe the blow however and revitalised the team for their next match

against Bart’s. No performance enhancing drugs were in the juice as far as we’re aware.

Many a battle had been fought against Bart’s, who happened to be in the same BUCS league as

GKT, and GKT had prevailed on both occasions. This match proved to be no different. The

disappointment of losing to RUMS was forgotten as GKT won comfortably 3-0. Week 1 left GKT

with 3 points to their name.

The 2nd

week of the tournament began with a fixture against another of our BUCS counterparts,

St. George’s. Having yet to defeat them this season, GKT were determined to finally claim victory.

St. George’s keeper and skipper was in influential form however and constantly denied the GKT

attack leaving the final result goalless. GKT therefore had it all to do against the old enemy ICSM,

where only a victory would secure passage. Unfortunately the GKT attack became unstuck again

as we were unfortunate not to come away with a victory and the drawn result left GKT

eliminated from the

competition. ICSM went on to

defeat RUMS in the UH Final.

Also worth warranting a

mention is that a large

number of GKT players

represented UH in matches

against the Army Cadets, UH

Old Boys, and on the annual

Bournemouth hockey tour.

Despite torrid conditions at

times, with many matches

being played on grass, UH

advanced to the final of the

competition only to lose to a

strong Dirty Angels side.

After the successful season GKT have had and with the new strength in depth the squad now

possesses, no doubt GKT will be challenging for UH silverware once again next season, as well as

having a large contingent of players representing UH. Finally, congratulations to Theo Muth who

was elected the new UH Treasurer for the 2012-13 season.

On Wednesday 28th

April the annual 2s vs. 3s game was to take place at HOP. The sun was more

than shining, Dom was peeling like an orange, and it was the day of Macadam. Both teams

sacrificed watching the DSBs and instead battled to see who really deserved the title of GKTHC

2nd

XI.

The 3s managed to field a full team, complete with subs. The 2s, on the other hand, struggled to

field enough players. In a generous show of sportsmanship, DK allowed the 2s to borrow SJ and

Saarth for a half each. Furthermore, the 3s star right back (not Bowhay, but Rajiv) was lent to the

2s for the entire game, along with Dom. Both had good games. Traitors.

The game started ruggedly, it was scrappy and both teams struggled to get a string of passes

together. However the 2s had a fair share of pressure and it eventually told after a short corner

wasn’t cleared properly and was hit back into the D for Max Schofield to tidily clip the ball into

the top corner from five yards out.

The tide had turned and the 2s continued to press. Their team, which again couldn’t field 11 of

their own players, started to turn on the heat further and the 3s couldn’t deal with it, leading to

an eventual 2-0 deficit at half-time. There were signs of possible fortune for the 3s with our goal

scoring phenomenon, Oscar, often finding himself in half-chance areas but our usual clinical

finishing didn’t follow through.

The start of the second half saw continual grit and determination from the 3s. Apparently our

‘enthusiasm and passion’ was wrongly transferred into what the umpires decided upon as being

too rough, and captain DK was given a green card. Taking one for the team, literally.

The 3s kept working hard and putting together some nice passages of play, having subs helped

but the 2s finished clinically. A short corner not being cleared (again) found its way to Charles

William Pidgeon, and he finished it into the bottom corner.

2nd

XI vs. 3rd

XI 2012

Akshay Gulati, 3rd

XI Captain elect

Another goal came for the 2s. Scrappy play in the D and Fresher Rich somehow bundled in a

pass/shot from Dom. One that probably won’t be up for goal of the season, but they all count.

Salt was further rubbed into the wound when a hopeful ball up field from the 2s wasn’t dealt

with by Akshay who rather than hit it out decided to add his name to the scorers and pass it past

a very confused Ash into the 3s own goal.

The game finished 5-0 to the 2s. A great season for the mighty 3s could have been finished with a

cherry on top but it wasn’t quite to be.

As the Macadam Cup matches were going on whilst this match was being played, there wasn’t

really anyone around to take photos. Here are some pictures of us celebrating the Macadam

Victory instead.

AGM this year was a stormer to say the least. In spite of early setbacks all involving too many X

chromosomes, the men's treasurer and exceptionally handsome social secretary were able to

save the day and buy all of the booze last minute, which made them late for the meeting but

heroes nonetheless.

The traditional meetings were held in Boland House, though because of the tyranny of a hitherto

unknown society called MedSin, all of the meeting rooms were booked. After a significant

amount of negotiating, the girls were allowed to use an upstairs room, and the boys got Guy's

Bar. Unfortunately this did mean that there was no oversight of the gin distribution between the

two clubs (social sec from one was absent), so the women's club ended up with nine out of

fifteen litres of gin. Eventually, one bottle was wrought off them, leaving the ratio at 7.5L to 7.5L

(50/50 to those who did A Level maths), which was a lot more than was supposed to doled out to

our delicate flowers. The major problem with this for those armed with common sense, is that

boys tend to be able to handle a lot more ethanol than girls. Add to this situation that some

members of the women's club decided to pre-drink all afternoon, and that the 60 girls present

finished all of their gin before leaving the meeting — the scene was set for a disaster, which

inevitably came to fruition. The sensible boys only drank some of their gin, leaving about three

litres for communal ginnings with the girls in the Quad (further compounding the problem).

Once both clubs had finished their meetings they were summoned to Guy's Quad, where two

rugby freshers (knowing their place in the world) served us a champagne reception. Several

lovely photos were taken, as was more juniper, and we moved off to Guy's Tower.

Fed up with the Griffin, this year's Social Secretaries decided to opt for the grandeur of the

Robens Suite on the 29th floor, presuming that the more upmarket venue would lead to a

AGM 2012

Mark Alexander Shimmings, Social Secretary

meagre adjustment of behaviour. The setup was divine, planned to a T, and even Janice Rymer

was in attendance. That did nothing to prevent the following: girls vomiting on the floor before

nonchalantly resuming their meals, long arming bottles of red wine, swimming on tables, heavy

petting Deans of medicine, profanity in a speech so extreme our mic was confiscated, smearing

butter on the windows, a senior member of the girls club relieving herself in the corner, raucous

drinking games, destruction of the loos, and poor table manners.

For approximately 40 minutes (of the two hours we had booked) this behaviour was tolerated,

before a member of the men's 3rd XI fell off his chair and duly showed his appreciation for all of

the wine and food he had managed to consume by delivering it all over the carpet. Already in the

process of being kicked out, this well and truly broke the camel’s back. Despite our protestations

a member of the catering team called the on-call doctor at Guy's, who suggested we call the

crash team. This was prevented by the charms of our very own Vinesh Patel, who managed to

convince a very shocked looking lady that he was indeed a doctor and everything was going to be

ok. After the treasurer, Greg 'Godsend' Nussbaum, had used wheelchairs to physically remove

boys and girls alike from the floor of Guy's to the downstairs car park, we made our way to

Belushi's.

On arrival, we were informed that we had not actually booked the downstairs venue of Belushi’s,

and all we had done was pay our entrance fee in advance. Undeterred, and being the fun bunch

that GKT Hockey will always be, we got stuck in with the locals of Borough. At the end of the

evening a good night was had by all- ambulances we summoned, bow-ties stolen, memories

made/lost, new stories gained, and a general ban on all student groups from using GSTT venues

was added to our list of Battle Honours.

Following the debauchery of the AGM the previous night, a bright and sunny morning was

greeted with groans and desperate Googling of hangover cures. Arrivals to the pitch were

staggered and staggering, a reverse reply of the previous night’s departures from Belushi’s. None

of this however reduced anyone’s desire to play a good game of hockey.

The 1st

team were present in numbers, their youthful metabolism the envy of their alumni

opponents. The older members had arrived in pieces, lamenting their youthful ability to ‘put it

away and turn up fresh the next day’.

The game proceeded at a high pace and a surprisingly high quality. There were never more than

one or two goals in it, however the first team showed the benefits of their season long training

and success, pulling a 6-5 win out the bag. There were no winners in defence, and the fact that

the alumni, fielding a goalkeeper (me), conceded more than the students, with no goalkeeper,

was my own personal low of the day. Highlights included some truly expert finishing from Joe

Keighley, a student whose talent and skills have been discovered and nurtured entirely within the

GKT Men’s Hockey Club, and a stirring performance from Anil Ekanayake for the alumni, scoring a

goal from quite an astonishing angle, and this time in the opposition goal.

As an old boy myself, it was a real pleasure seeing the current students 1st

XI playing hockey

reminiscent of the glory days of the early Naughties. Ball possession, fast skilful wing-play and

clever finishing were all attributes of the GKT teams of old who so dominated UH Hockey. It is

refreshing to see that the current crop contains the camaraderie, attitudes and skills to bring

back the glory days.

My apologies to those not mentioned. The day was hazy at the time and hazier still now. All who

came contributed, and the President’s Cup saw the competition it deserved, a credit to all who

played.

President’s Match

2012

Tom Simpson, GKT Class of 2006

NAMS is always a tournament for the die-hard mixed hockey players and this year it was no

different. The early morning meet on Friday marked the beginning of an epic weekend through-

and-through. As we trekked up to Manchester convoy-style, led by ‘Eagle’s Nest’, we made rapid

time and, notwithstanding a short detour to pick up a taxidermy crocodile, we arrived as per: the

first and drunkest of the teams. The bar was set as we tore up the Curry Mile, leading many a

ballad at our curry meal (Shit on Mary’s!), led the way to the pub (in naught but sexy tank tops

and leopard get-ups whilst taking on the sub-zero weather), getting a bit too much to handle at

Manchester’s Student Union (indecent exposure?! Naaah!), and making a presence at the

student night.

Our strong presence was continued to be noted for the following two days as we played hard and

drank harder on and off the pitch as our teams, blood alcohol contents, and banter rose steadily

as the tournament progressed.

A sharp eye, when offered our beer bong to down her champagne bottle, observed, “You got

here first, still drunk and you’ve been drinking hard the entire day! How on earth are you doing

so well?” Little did she know that these are everyday matters for GKT mixed hockey.

NAMSchester 2012

Ashwin Kalra, Mixed Captain

A weekend of solid hockey was peppered by a variety of notable moments: freshers were

prescribed suitable measures in traditional manners (as Bloomers would attempt to recall) and

through new, exciting methods: gin-sachets (UGH!), gin-boarding (don’t ask), gin à la potted herb,

and upside-down gin to name a few. Friends were made (Megan woke up next to a lovely new

lady friend), new things were experienced (as Saarth got well acquainted with a handsome

homosexual OAP), and limits were reached (Joe, Lily...) and surpassed (how many litres of gin did

we get through? 10 in 12 hours?). Excellent work, lads and ladies.

All in all, we partied hard incredibly hard, we set an example to our Kingdom’s finest medical

schools on and off the pitch, and walked away with a tidy second place overall. Not too shabby,

GKT!

Until next year!

At the last AGM I handed over to Saarth Shiralkar and Joe Keighley the mantle of Alumni

Secretary. Little did they realise that they had to now write and edit a newsletter. Thus you will

be subjected to the demented ramblings of my mildly amusing 7-year GKT Hockey history in the

ensuing lines.

I arrived at GKT (when it was still called GKT) in 2005. I ventured to Freshers’ Trials under the

assumption that my hockey prowess would be scrutinized. Instead I was introduced to

‘snakebite’ and ‘ginnings’. I now leave GKT with a strong distaste towards them both. Hockey-

wise I managed to command a place in the 1st

XI, mostly due to the then Club Captain being a

family friend. Proof that networking gets you far.

Seven years at GKT

Hockey Club

Kaanthan Jawahar, GKT Class of 2012

The second year saw my family connections expire and following a Freshers’ Trials related ankle

injury, I found myself in the 2nd

XI. Though initially disgruntled due to my inaccurate view on my

own ability, I later grew to realise that I loved playing for the Mighty 2s. Many a year and success

were spent here, playing under some truly great leaders and finding my place as a sweeper at

GKT Hockey Club. Of particular highlight will be the penalty shootout that saw us beat Imperial to

be crowned ULU Reserve Cup Champions under Hassan Raja in 2008-2009.

However I felt I really turned a corner in the 2009-2010 season. Here I was 2nd

XI captain and we

won ULU Division 2, got to the semi-finals of the ULU Reserve Cup and finished 2nd

in BUCS

behind our 1st

XI. My personal hockey got infinitely better and I had a truly fantastic bunch of lads

in my squad. This was all a springboard to the following season where I was Club Captain and

regained my 1st

XI post. A Full Blue was the result.

Though hockey was limited in my final year to the 1st

term, I continued to be a member of the 1st

XI under one of the strongest GKT sides I have played in. It is clear that this side is going places –

they are well balanced, individually talented and function as a strong unit.

The social side to GKT Hockey Club has been an integral part of my life at GKT. Tours never cease

to impress wherever we go including, but not limited to, Liverpool, Nottingham and Belgium. The

re-introduction of NAMS has seen GKT crowned as the loudest and most hardcore medical

hockey team in the UK (and 2nd

best at hockey!) and new traditions such as T.I.T.S. and the

Flabongo add to the evolution of best sports club at GKT.

I leave now as a student, but continue to be involved as an Old Boy. GKT Old Boys’ Hockey Club

has been restarted and I look forward to playing for them in the years to come.

Well, what a season it's been for the first team. It's all been a bit of a blur, but I'll try and recall

some of the more memorable moments!

The season started off with some pre-season fitness – perhaps the most entertaining fact being

the excuses people gave for avoiding some of the fitness sessions: “I couldn't go for a run

because I couldn't find a treadmill” is a particular favourite.

Our first match was a dull friendly against Bart's, ending in a 1-1 draw, but we did manage to

persuade Charlie Ding to come and film the game which provided some amusement. The

introduction of the hydration station and half-time snacks (mainly focussed around Jelly babies)

meant that, following that slow start, we were quick to find our feet, opening our league

campaign with a 7-1 win away against QMUL – a game which was followed by a now club-wide

1st

XI Report

Dan Cromb, 1st

XI Captain

favourite, fancy pants social. Notable performances from our freshers in that game, Harry 'Rotter'

Edwards and Khush 'Forward-for-a-game' Shah, ensured team morale was high.

The wins kept coming for the first half of the season, with the exception of a 0-2 loss to our

bogey side, St. George’s. Perhaps the most notable of the wins was a 7-0 thrashing of the team

who were top of the league at the time, Essex. It was a performance that showed what hard work

on and off the pitch could do, with more debut goals for freshers coming from Alec 'Drag Flick'

Dawson and Nick 'Nicky Chang' Chang. The midfield powerhouses of Theo 'The Engine' Muth,

Fergus 'Soon-to-be-a-medic-fresher' Catmur, Jason 'The Gash-smasher' Gupta and Ryo 'まみれ

の地獄ああ ' Arimoto consistently dominated games, and the emergence of Hassan 'The Hulk'

Raja from the 2's made selection particularly difficult.

At the back, things looked tidier than ever, with training sessions on transferring balls paying

dividends. We looked comfortable on the ball, and the aerial threat from Alec, Khush and Jay

added an extra-dimension to our game. I feel a special mention should go to Jay 'Too-unfit-for-

midfield' Pachchigar, who switched to the role of centre back from last year’s position of midfield

dynamo with ease and without complaining, and certainly played a vital role in controlling

opposition forwards. With Sachin 'He's-such-a-charmer-ohhhhhh-no' Sharma assuming his usual

position of best right back in the league, my selection headaches continued as Matt 'Vintage'

Hope, Greg 'Bloody Knees' Nussbaum and Karny 'Did-you-know-his-photo-is-on-the-side-of-the-

Strand' Jawahar battled for the left back position. Not that the forwards made things any easier

for me, regularly putting in solid performances, and scoring consistently and looking threatening

in every game. However, it was again a demonstration of how far we've come from the team that

got relegated two seasons on the trot that we had a large squad to pick from, any of whom

would have deserved a regular starting place in any of the teams in our league.

We went into the Christmas break high in spirits, top of the league (you're havin' a laugh!) and,

notably, without having received a single card (red, yellow, or green), in any of the games we had

played. Discipline was on the up.

The second half of the season started off slowly again as people looked to rid themselves of the

turkey and puddings, but wins were still the common result. We beat IC 1's 4-1 in our first win of

the ULU Premier League campaign, and smashed QMUL 8-0 again, this time seeing yet more

goals from a fresher, with Jonny 'Marathon Man' Gabriel giving a master class in finishing in the

'D' and bagging himself a hat-trick on his debut. Joe 'Headband' Keighley also made further

contributions for goal of the season, and proved last year’s top goal scorer award wasn't a fluke.

In March, we went to ICSM for the 235th time in two years, to play a game we needed to win in

order to avoid relegation from the ULU Premier League. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be, as we

went down by a solitary goal – a definite low point of the season for me, but one I'm sure we will

recover from next year. However, we managed to progress to the semi-finals of the ULU Cup,

only narrowly losing out to UCL to prevent a clash of the titans final against KCL. We also missed

out on the final of the UH Cup by one goal, which was frustrating, but the number of fixtures we

had to play in the last few weeks were beginning to show.

With so many 'so near but yet so far' moments, it was beginning to look like, despite having our

strongest season hockey-wise for many a year, we would come away without any silverware. Our

final BUCS game of the season saw us travel to Essex, knowing only a win would be enough to

gain promotion. A spirited performance saw us score with five minutes to go to set up jubilant

scenes at the final whistle and a barely memorable minibus journey home.

We were unfortunate to lose our final game of the year against KCL in the Macadam Cup, but it

was another spirited performance that could have gone either way.

It's been a brilliant season off the pitch too, with the social antics of the first team being barely

unrecognisable from the hermits of a few years ago. A solid showing of naked Butler's at the

Christmas dinner went down well with the women's team, particularly that little DSB, Nikita. We

regularly dominated McDonald’s and Guy's Bar like a bullfighter dominates a bull, and I've seen

sides of people in the team that would make the public think twice about allowing them near

them as doctors (or dentists...booooo). Thanks for the memories (or lack thereof!).

I certainly don't think I could have predicted how much work it would have involved and how

much time it would take up, but overall, it's been a fantastic year to be playing for GKT HC Men's

1's, an honour to be captain of such an all-round successful team and I'd like to take this

opportunity to thank everyone for their efforts and making my life so easy at times. I want to

extend particular thanks to my vice-captain, Sachin, who has been fantastic every step of the way

this year, going above and beyond the scope of his responsibilities, taking coaching sessions,

organising umpires and generally being an all round good egg.

This season, the ever handsome 2nd

XI took to the field with a relatively new look team, following

the loss of a number of players to elderly life or the 1st

team abyss. The team began in strong

fashion, flattening KCL 4-0 in an opening un-friendly. An unfortunate 2-1 loss to Canterbury

provided the only disappointment in the first half of the season, in which a hitherto unseen brand

of astonishingly attractive hockey led the team to the top of the BUCS league.

The team also maintained their standing as the pre-eminent social team of the club. Strongbow

challenges, four pint challenges and a general charismatic social grace were well received by the

Guy’s Bar masses each week. Christmas Dinner brought the opportunity to exhibit a bit of

culture, which the team provided by donning Lederhosen and not being racist.

The second half of the season brought a number of difficult away games. Following a series of

uncharacteristic draws, the 2nd

XI found themselves in 2nd

place of the BUCS league with one

game remaining. What followed was a nail-biting 1-0 victory over Kent. Celebrations were cut

short, however, as KCL had managed to win their match, thus denying GKT’s promotion. Sorrows

2nd

XI Report

Alex Chowdhury, 2nd

XI Captain

were boozily drowned on a long coach trip back to London, driven by one of the most

homophobic men that the team had encountered this year.

In the matter of awards, votes were tight and many were deserving. Fresher Rich picked up the

player of the season award, following numerous heroic midfield performances. Mark Shimmings

picked up the most improved award, as he had improved the most. Charles Pidgeon picked up

the award for Tosser for numerous indiscretions, including being slapped by a comedian for being

annoying.

All in all, the season was a relative success. A lot of new faces got to know each other and the

hockey was scintillating at times. Heads were held high, as the team had fought for promotion

until the final day, no mean feat in itself. Next season holds much promise (as long as we can

forget about this ‘squad fluidity’ nonsense) with Fresher Rich and Faisal at the helm. I’ve very

much enjoyed the year and wish to say thank you to the whole team.

P.S. I can’t really remember what happened in ULU or the cup.

Having had the honour of being voted captain bestowed on me by the team, I entered this

season with high hopes looking to build on last season’s young but growing team. We ended last

season with very few wins, but the match experience gained of playing together as a team was

instrumental to this season’s success. I must say, I felt no pressure in improving on last season’s

record as my predecessor, Saarth Shiralkar, didn’t leave very big shoes to fill.

We started our first 2 games with heavy defeats, seeing us lose 6-0 to Greenwich and a

disheartening 10-0 defeat against Bart’s. Despite my efforts of informing the team that

Greenwich were a new team and thus had to start in our league, and that we were unlucky to be

drawn against Barts 1st

team in the first stage of the BUCS Cup, spirits were low.

However, thanks to our ‘never say die’ attitude, we played our hearts out at the next match and

we were suitably rewarded with an 8-0 victory over the polytechnic they call the University of the

Arts. With fine art work from their hockey sticks, our very own fresher Oscar Barnick and Dom

Aldridge managed to score a hat-trick each. Overall it was a fine performance by the mighty 3’s,

comparable to Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel.

3rd

XI Report

Dheeraj Khiatani, 3rd

XI Captain

Having tasted the sweet, sweet nectar of victory, GKTHC 3rd

XI went on to play a further 5

matches without any losses (3 wins, a draw and a walkover). We beat Imperial 4s 5-0, with

Summet ‘Bengal Tiger’ Oberai scoring 2 goals and our former Charles ‘Napoleon’ Pidgeon scoring

a goal himself. We also beat Imperial Medics 3rd

XI 2-0. One of the games was a friendly against

the DSB’s who play for the women’s GKT 1st

team, but it still counts.

Our winning streak ended with a narrow 1-0 defeat to the Bart’s 2nd

XI in the BUCS League.

However, yet again we kept our heads high and went on to defeat RUMS 3-0, with myself scoring

my first ever goal in a competitive match. Confidence levels were high once again, and we all

went to Guys bar looking to ‘score’ off the pitch as well. Our lovable Saarth ‘Angry-all-the-time’

Shiralkar actually slotted one into the back of the net… (ball girl).

We then faced ICSM 3s (Shit on Mary’s!) once again, in a ULU promotion decider. Having beaten

them previously, we went to the game confident, and possibly even too complacent.

Unfortunately, we were unable to repeat our previous success, and lost to them 3-0. Without

making any excuses (I’m not that sort of person), they had a few ringers in their team and the

water sprinklers came on halfway through the match soaking our defensive line up and goal

keeper, thus tipping the balance of power in their favour.

To end the season, we travelled to RHUL 2nd

XI to play them in a ULU cup game, but

unfortunately lost to them on penalty flicks. Again, without making any excuses, the game was

called off early due to the lack of floodlights, and we were forced to go to penalty flicks.

However, our spirits weren’t dampened as we travelled back to Guys Bar on the team’s very first

fun bus, getting suitably drunk on board. The highlight of the trip back would have to be Capital

FM dedicating Avicii’s ‘Levels’ to us as we approached the iconic squirrel that is Guy’s Hospital to

mark the end of a very successful season.

I have thoroughly enjoyed captaining this team and given the chance, I would do it all over again.

I would like to say a big, big thank you to my vice-captain, Hannes ‘Ikea’ Hagson. Without his

‘inspirational’ words and dedication we would not have finished the season on such a high. I

would like to also take this opportunity to thank the boys of the mighty 3’s, who are my friends

first and my team-mates second. Good luck to Akshay Gulati and Maninderpal Matharu, the

future captain and vice-captain of the fine men at GKT HC 3rd

XI. This time round, you do have big

shoes to fill, because Hannes and I have huge feet ;-)!

Full Blues

Nominees should have played their sport at

1st team level AND ABOVE (county teams

etc) for at least 3 years and held committee

positions for at least two years; for at least

one of those years they should have been on

the core committee (i.e. Club Captain/1st

team captain). Blues are awarded on the

discretion of the Blues & Shields Committee,

formed of senior members of staff from the

Medical School.

Daniel Cromb

Half Blues

The criteria are not as strict as for

full blues but in general; three years playing

at a reasonably high standard plus one or

two years on committee OR five/six years

playing at a reasonably high standard.

Shin Woo Kim

Leavers 2012

Kaanthan Jawahar

Hugo Penny

Roy Wheeler

Callum Baxter

Harry Edwards

Jay Pachchigar

Jaime Farr

Matthew Francis

Shin Woo Kim

Henry Eynon-Lewis

Man of the Year

Daniel Cromb

Fresher of the Year

Oscar Barnick

1st

XI Awards

Player of the Year: Jason Gupta

Most Improved Player: Greg Nussbaum

Fresher of the Year: Khush Shah

2nd

XI Awards

Player of the Year: Richard White

Most Improved Player: Mark Shimmings

3rd

XI Awards

Player of the Year: Akshay Gulati

Most Improved Player: Bhavesh Patel

Fresher of the Year: Tom Keeley

Golden Stick: Oscar Barnick

Honours List for the

2011/12 Season

Contact Information

Club Email

kclms.mhc@gmail.com

Club Website

http://kclmshockey.wordpress.com

Club Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/GKTHockey

Club Twitter Page

https://twitter.com/gkthockey

Men’s Committee 2012/13

Club Captain: Theo Muth

1st

XI Captain: Jason Gupta

1st

XI Vice-Captain: Ryoki Arimoto

2nd

XI Captain: Richard White

2nd

XI Vice-Captain: Faisal Karim

3rd

XI Captain: Akshay Gulati

3rd

XI Vice-Captain: Maninderpal Matharu

Mixed Captain: Fergus Catmur

Treasurer: Dom Aldridge

Social Secretaries: Dheeraj Khiatani & Rich Cameron

Alumni Officers: Saarth Shiralkar & Joe Keighley

Fixtures Secretary: Ashwin Kalra

Informations Secretary: Hannes Hagson

So that’s all folks, the end of another alumni newsletter. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you again

to everyone who contributed.

The summer is always a difficult time. There’s no hockey, Wednesday nights don’t involve Guy’s

Bar, and we have to say goodbye to many friends and team mates. But that, as Elton John once

sang, is the circle of life. I hope that reading this newsletter brought back fond memories of your

own time at GKT Hockey Club. If you ever feel like contributing please don’t hesitate to get in

touch. If you know of any alumni whose details we don’t have, please do pass this on to them.

The previous season has been excellent and next season is shaping up to be even better. Hope-

fully all three teams will continue to push on and build on this season’s successes, and we expect

the pavilion at Honor Oak Park to finally be built.

Until next time!

Epilogue

Saarth Shiralkar, Alumni Officer