Author: Clive R

After consultation with players, the Committee have taken the decision to move training from its current home to a saturday morning.

Training will commence on Saturday the 28th of April at Horsebridge Recreational

ground, near Hailsham starting at 10AM till Noon.

Club Chairman, Luke Boorer added “We spoke to all the players and coaches following the success of Saturday morning when at Eastbourne Sports Park. A few of  the players also play rugby and training coincide with rugby training which meant the players were left in a predicament as to which to attend, and we didn’t feel this was very fair. Saturday morning was the most popular outcome and I am pleased to say the Committee agreed”.

The HoundDogs are still looking to recruit more players to join the existing squad, so if you are interested in joining the newest club in Sussex, get in contact with us through our email address or by using Social Media.

Monday the 26th of March saw HoundDogs coach, Luke Boorer attend Blackboys school in East Sussex to demonstrate Flag American Football to the year 5 & 6 children.

The afternoon saw the children learning the basic skills of throwing, catching, running with the ball as well as defending and flag pulling. The children also got the chance to play some mini games against each other.

Hellingly Hounddogs would like to thank Miss Cross and Blackboys School for inviting us into their school to show off our sport to all the children.

If your school would be interested in a similar visit, please email us on hellinglyhounddogs@hotmail.com

Sunday the 25^th of March saw Hellingly HoundDogs host teams from Kent Phoenix and

East Kent Mavericks on the 3G surface at Eastbourne Sports Park.

The scrimmage was designed to give a number of rookie players from the Mavericks a little bit of experience before they enter the BAFA league for 2018, whilst also offering a lot of the new players from the other two team some match experience.

The HoundDogs’ first opponent were the Mavericks. The Mavericks ran away winners  20-0 and were very worthy of their win.  The HoundDogs got very little going on offence but demonstrated some good defence skills through the game.

The second game of the day for the HoundDogs was a much tighter affair. The

HoundDogs took on the Kent Phoenix, who were the HoundDogs’ opponent a few months back (when they ran away with, winning all three games on that date). The Phoenix took the lead but the young HoundDogs came back with a touchdown from Charlie Boorer, as he held onto a pass from his older brother Jacob, as three Phoenix players converged on him in the endzone. The Phoenix then took the lead again with a tight side line catch in the endzone. With time running out, the HoundDogs moved the ball quickly down the field and, with the last play of the game, saw Jacob Boorer connect with Roman Cameron-Dick to tie the game at 12-12.

It was then the return of the Mavericks for the HoundDogs team. This time the

HoundDogs put up a much better display and the game finished with a much tighter score line, as the Mavs ran out 6-0 winners. It could have been worse if it hadn’t been with the “never give up” attitude of Dylan Viles, who chased the rushing Mavericks’ player down to get an ankle tap on him just before the endzone.

Coach Luke Boorer commented “It was a fantastic display of teamwork from this side which lacked experience. On the day you could see the players really develop from the first game to the last. They have really started to show signs of a fantastic team spirit and have improved so much since the teams last run out in October last year. There are so many positives to look at, Riley Davis had several good runs for the offence before suffering an injury. Joules Parsons, Harrison Kane and Alex Edward also made several crunching challenges. It’s very hard to single players out as they all played well and represented the club to an extremely high standard”.

Euroshowers Man of the Match:

Offence – Captain Danny Townsend: lead the team extremely well and contained many of the opposition players in the line to give the QB plenty of time.

Defence – Dylan Viles: playing in his first game, Dylan made lots of fantastic challenges as well as being thrown into the deep end when Riley Davis suffered an injury.

 

Hellingly HoundDogs Under 17’s returned to training on Saturday 27th Of January after the Christmas break. The club have moved their winter training programme to the 3G facility at Eastbourne Sports Park due to the conditions of the field at Horsebridge. This was possible due to a grant from Sussex Police and the Property Act Fund which granted the HoundDogs £480 to help cover the costs.  The HoundDogs would like to thank Sean Trimby for his help in obtaining the grant from Sussex Police.

The 1st training session of the year was welcomed by many returning players from 2017 along with 7 new faces coming along and trying the sport. The session was mainly made up of fundamental skills as well as the coaches laying down a new training system that will be regularly used at most training sessions for the 2018 season.

Coach, Luke Boorer added “It was great to see so many new faces as well as returning faces for the day. We knew a few players from last season were unable to make the training session, so have high hopes to see our numbers swell over the coming weeks. It was a new record for us in terms of playing numbers and this will hopefully bode well for the season ahead. We already have two scrimmages booked in for the start of the year and are slowly looking to add more to give the players chance to train, play and learn from these experiences, I would also like to thank Sean Trimby and the Police for their generous donation which has helped immensely with us being able to train at a fantastic facility. Hailsham doesn’t have a 3G facility in the town and Horsebridge has water laying everywhere, which would have resulted in us having to cancel many sessions ahead”.

The HoundDogs are still looking to register more players for their teams, and if you, or someone you know might be interested, drop them an email on hellinglyhounddogs@hotmail.com or contact them on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram