City club to host festival of hockey in Lancaster

Lancaster Hockey Festival is taking place in the local area this weekend.

It’s happening on Lancaster University’s astroturf from 10am until 4pm this Saturday (September 2) and promises to be a fun day for all.

The festival is organised and hosted by Lancaster Hockey Club and includes free junior taster sessions as well as walking hockey sessions, back to hockey sessions and a senior team tournament, which will run from 11am to 4pm.

The walking hockey and back to hockey sessions will cost £4, and if you want to get involved in them, signing up beforehand is a requirement.

You can do that here.

Signing up in advance is also a requirement for the free junior sessions (age 6-14) and you can do that here.

For those sessions, hockey sticks will be lended if needed.

After the event, junior team training will start again in mid-September, from 6pm until 7pm on Tuesday nights at Lancaster University. Players over 13 will have the opportunity to join the senior teams once they feel ready.

The senior tournament will be an exciting watch and will be good preparation for all teams involved for the start of the season later in the month.

Club and first team captain Leighan Bleasdale spoke on Beyond Radio’s Saturday Sports Show a couple of weeks ago about the festival, and explained a bit more about the tournament.

“It’s a seven-a-side tournament," said Leighan.

"Lancaster Hockey Club will have three teams and there’ll be other teams from south Cumbria and North Lancashire. It will be slightly competitive, but it’s more about bringing juniors up into the senior teams.

“There’s also umpire coaching for those who are interested in umpiring but don’t want to go straight into league matches.”

After the festival, back to hockey sessions will run from September to April and will focus on training “ex-players and people who haven’t played since school”, who may want to play hockey once again. Training includes looking at “the basics of how to play hockey” and helping them to “gain the confidence to potentially play in senior teams.”

Walking hockey training has been on hold since the pandemic but Leighan says the club are looking at offering sessions sometime over the course of the season, whether that be at the university or somewhere else in the local area.

As well as the hockey, there will be refreshments, a raffle and a Storm Hockey Stall at the festival.

To find out more information about the club and/or the festival, either email lancasterhockeyclub@gmail.com or visit their website.

The following week, the club have a tournament in Manchester on September 9 at the Armitage Centre, starting at 10am.

All three senior teams start their league seasons on September 23 and details of every fixture will be on the Beyond Radio weekly sports guide.