Coach hopes Maids get a competitive run out
Maidenhead RFC: Mobbs-Smith keen to play this season if the authorities allow it
David Mobbs-Smith has reiterated his hope that the club will return to some form of friendly or competitive action this season.
The Maids head coach remains hopeful that players of all ages and both sexes will be able to train and play matches again in the coming months, with the Government set to provide some guidance this month on the pathway out of lockdown and back to normality.
And behind the scenes the players are keeping themselves in as good a shape as possible so they’re ready to return to the pitch as soon as the authorities allow it.
League matches won’t be played this season, at least not for the first team, but Mobbs-Smith does believe adaptive, contact matches could be arranged for Maids to play some of their local rivals in May or even June.
“If we’re able to start back in May, we’ll certainly be training and trying to get some games in that period,” said the head coach, “We’ll look to play some form of rugby in the summer, having not played, and then the new season would start again in September, as if nothing had happened in the past 18 months.
“Our players are doing fitness tests this week. It’s not like we’re being dormant. We just can’t do team environment training at the moment, but behind the scenes we’re doing every we can to prepare for the start of the season.”
Maidenhead’s return to the training field and the rugby pitch remains in the hands of the Government and the RFU, and Mobbs-Smith expects conversations are currently taking place within the RFU over how community clubs can safely get back to action. When the country was placed back into lockdown after Christmas all community clubs returned to stage 1 of the RFU’s return to rugby
roadmap and they may have to work their way through the phases once again before competitive contact matches can be played again.
“How quickly we can return is not in our hands,” said Mobbs-Smith. “All we can do is try to keep people as fit as possible, then we can spend a little bit more time on the technical and tactical side of the game from the very start, because we’ll have stayed relatively fit during this lay off period. Every time there’s been a window to play, we’ve been out training and preparing as if the next game was the following week. Hopefully, because of this, we’ll catch up quite quickly. The sounds coming from Government would suggest it’s going to be another gradual process, but we may get permission to extend the season a little in the amateur game to allow some games to be played. The biggest problem for rugby at this level is how hard the grounds can be in the summer, but for clubs like Maidenhead with an artificial pitch it’s irrelevant. If someone was prepared to come to our place we could play.
“I’m hoping that will be in May, or perhaps even in June. We could then have a sixweek window to play, and I’m guessing these discussions are going on all the time at the RFU and being adapted and changed depending on the circumstances. Will we play in the league before September, no. But will we play local fixtures against the likes of Bracknell or Windsor, there’s a chance of that happening.
“I know the Rams are very keen to get back and do something before the start of the season, so perhaps we could play them or have joint training sessions. We’ll be looking at all these avenues.
“We’re ready to do all of these things, but will we be allowed to?”
Phil Cowell remains hopeful Maidenhead Hockey Club will return to competitive action later this spring, however, his first season as captain has been blighted in ways he could not have imagined when he took on the reins from teammate Chris Brown.
Cowell had hoped the club would build on their impressive finish to last season’s MBBO Premier Division 2 West campaign, but instead, after playing just six matches, the league was halted after the country was placed back into lockdown. The captain didn’t play many of those matches, after suffering a back injury in the side’s second match against Henley. He returned for their final game against Southgate but admitted last week it’s been a frustrating period.
England Hockey and the Southern Hockey League are waiting on further guidance from Government before deciding if the hockey season can resume later this year. Cowell said last week his best guess is that matches may resume in early to mid-April and continue through to May.
It is hoped that each side can play each other at least once to determine league placings.
He said: “It’s really frustrating. Especially for me personally as it’s my first season as captain and we’ve been hit massively. It’s not the perfect season I would have liked to have led the team through. I miss being on the pitch as well. It almost feels like I’ve missed a season of important hockey.
“I’ve just turned 30-years-old old and now I’m thinking ‘how many more matches am I going to get in before the niggles become more serious. I think I
played the first game and then it was in the second game against Henley that my back got really bad. I was back for the last game against Southgate, but it’s doubly frustrating because I only had two games and 10 minutes really.”
“In that sense it’s gutting to be missing so much hockey, but obviously everyone’s health is so much more important.”
The Maidenhead teammates have been keeping each other going with fitness challenges throughout lockdown and Cowell is hopeful they’ll return to the training pitch at some point before the season is officially restarted or cancelled.
“In January we tried to complete 100km in a month,” he said. “Quite a few of the guys took part in that and it was just a bit of friendly competition to keep everyone training and moving. We had to get some fitness in after Christmas as well. Hopefully we can all get back on the training pitch and see everyone at some point.
Cowell is hopeful on a positive announcement from England Hockey in the coming weeks and he says most of the team are keen to get back to action after such a long break. England Hockey are set to make an announcement on February 15, and the Southern Premier League will make a further statement and decision on what they’re going to do with their league on February 22,” he said.
“Some teams have only played four games and they’ll probably have to play a couple of double headers on a Saturday and Sunday.
“In that sense it’s quite lucky that we’ve played a couple more games. I expect doubling up would be quite hard on the body after such a long break.
“It’s almost like restarting again. We will need to have a pre-season. The only positive I can say is, myself personally, I’ve had quite a long ongoing issue, and this has given me time to recover from it and do my exercises. I’ve spoken to the other guys who have also had some muscle injuries and they’ve also been able to recover. So, it’s swings and roundabouts. If we restart, we’ll have to do a pre-season and will have some hard work to do. But at least everyone’s niggles and stuff have had time to recover.”