User:Sukh Shergill/sandbox

Barford Tigers Hockey Club in Birmingham UK. This club caters for all levels of field hockey for both Men and women. It has membership ranging form 6 to 70 year olds. The History of Barford Tigers Hockey is reflection of life for ethnic minorities that emigrated to England in the 1960s and 1970s. History: In the early nineteen-sixties, a number of Birmingham secondary schools, motivated partly by the influx of pupils from India and Pakistan, began to put out hockey teams. One of these was Barford Boys’ School, a small Secondary Modern, situated just off the main Dudley Road in the Ladywood / Winson Green area of the City. Barford’s P.E. teacher, Henry da Silva, by dint of seeking fixtures whenever and wherever they were available, often against girls’ schools, and as far a field as Redditch, built up a keen and creditable skilful side. By 1965-66, the last year of the school’s existence, a full role was being played in the competitions and administration of the fledgling Birmingham Schoolboys’ Hockey Association. The Semi-final of the Under 16’s Cup competition was reached and boys were selected for the Association’s representative team. At Christmas that year, Mr da Silva moved to a new post in Leicester and the team was taken over by Malcolm Challoner, his successor as P.E. teacher. Most of the team were now in their final school year and they expressed a strong wish to continue playing after leaving. Keen to help out, Malcolm wrote to all the Birmingham hockey clubs advising them of this pool of talent looking for a hockey home, but not surprisingly, given the structure of the game at the time, received no response. The next step, then, was for the boys, led by the captain, Gurnam Atkhar, and vice-captain, Asif Ali, to decide to form their own club. A historic first meeting was held at the School on 7th June 1966, when a simple Constitution and rules were agreed on, and ‘officers’ were elected – Gurnam (Captain), Asif (vice-Captain) and Malcolm Challoner (Secretary / Treasurer), with Jinder Singh and David Brotherton as additional committee members. At this, Malcolm again circulated local clubs, this time with more success, asking for games, and a skeleton fixture list of Saturday matches for 1966-67 was achieved. There still remained, however, the major hurdles of finding a home ground and of finance to be overcome. At this point fortune smiled. A chance conversation at an evening institute class put Malcolm in touch with Birmingham’s Commonwealth Liaison Officer, Mr L.A. Gibbs. He lent the Club £13 to buy a set of shirts and some match balls, and made the first enquiry about hiring a pitch at Rowheath, the Cadbury’s Sports Ground in Bournville. In the Autumn of 1966, when the first ‘away’ matches had optimistically been played, Cadbury’s agreed to hire Tigers a pitch on Saturday afternoons at a cost of £1 per match. This was a crucial step in the establishment of the Club. Pitches at Rowheath, in those days, were beautifully maintained, with excellent changing and refreshment facilities. The Club was now able to play its home fixtures, and hired a coach, at a typical cost of £4, for a local journey to travel to the away fixtures. The inaugural season was completed with the following final results: Played 17		Won 5		Drawn 3		Lost 9		Goals scored 31		Goals conceded52 Opponents included Rubery Owen, Bham Municipal, Kynoch 2nd, Halesowen Grammar School, Old Halesowenians 2nd, Dudley College of Education, Bournville 3rd, Bham University Wanderers, Bham Schools U-16, Old Wulfrunians 4th, West Bromwich 2nd, Pickwick Nomads XI, to name but a few. During the next few years, the Tigers grew in strength. The fixture list filled out and the playing record improved season by season. The Club’s first tournament success came in 1970 when Cannock Under – 23 Festival was won (and again in 1972). The Birmingham Municipal Hockey Club Festival was won for the first of many times in 1971 and, most significantly, the final of the Worcestershire Clubs Championship was reached in the 1972-73 season. Barford School, meanwhile, had been closed and was merged with a nearby girls’ school to form Stanmore School in a brand new building just down the road in Edgbaston. Malcolm Challoner also moved to the new school, where hockey thrived. Stanmore teams were regular winners of Birmingham Schoolboys’ Hockey Association competitions and provided numerous players for the Association’s representative teams, as well as a steady flow of talented newcomers to the Tigers’ ranks. The former pupils of Barford and Stanmore were the main part of the Club’s membership for many years. (Many, of course, still belong.)