University of Exeter Hockey Team, 1989 (Tim Ireland back row, second from right).

Hockey Alumni Christmas Lunch

Shortly after he graduated, Tim Ireland (Chemical Engineering, 1983) began organising a reunion for his friends from the Hockey Club at Exeter. They’d meet to play hockey or for a drink at a familiar pub. In 1984, to contact the players who had scattered from Exeter across the UK and overseas, Tim hand-typed and posted letters to invite the hockey teams to gather: there was no other way!

The hockey teams of the early 1980s organised hockey tours to Guernsey, but as many members stopped playing hockey over time, the tours and opportunities to play hockey together transferred to an annual Christmas lunch and playing golf together.

From about 1998 to 2010, around 20 alumni members of the University Hockey Club met each year for a Christmas lunch at The Old Doctor Butler's Head, Moorgate. In 2010, Tim’s 1983 hockey band brought their annual golf tour to Exeter and retired to the Victoria Inn (at the junction of Union Road and Victoria Street). There, they encountered recent hockey club graduates including Kieran Payne (Business and Management, 2010), Toby Roche (Geography, 2010) and Simon Tyson (Exercise & Sport Sciences, 2008) following their own hockey club reunion.

Kieran and Toby joined the 1983-ers’ next Golf Day and brought other hockey players to the 2010 Christmas Lunch at The Old Dr Butler’s, and since then, this event has snowballed – it now has 70 to 100 attendees each year with players from many years from 1980 to recent years and many overseas attendees and members – including from Singapore, Myanmar, Norway and the USA.

The Christmas lunch has now moved to the last Friday before Christmas and the 2016 Hockey Club Christmas lunch will be held on 16th December 2016, it remains at the Old Dr Butler’s Head in Moorgate.

Tim’s hard work and attention to keep in touch with his fellow Hockey Club members in the early years after graduating has resulted in a brilliant community of Exeter alumni; they still enjoy catching up with each other to remember time they’ve shared, keep a little informed about the Hockey Club today and meet new contacts in work and business. Many alumni also support the University’s Hockey Club financially and two additional Hockey Scholars will be supported this academic year thanks to donations from alumni. From Tim’s typewriter in 1984, there are now key, informal contacts for hockey alumni across many groups, who marshal their team-mates coming to the lunch and help introduce newcomers and the current hockey club captains, including:

Alex Lawton – 1990s

Kieran Payne – 2000s

Andrew Miller – 2010s

Stuart Moyce (Accountancy Studies, 1984) now organises the Christmas lunch. If you would like to attend this year’s hockey club Christmas lunch, please contact Stuart, or Simon Tyson at the University. It would be brilliant to have a table of ladies hockey teams too – if alumnae of the hockey club would like to join the Christmas lunch, then the group could start to be truly representative of Exeter’s hockey teams over the last 30 years.

One day, the hockey club alumni hope it will be possible to arrange an alumni hockey day with a competition for alumni teams from a few universities – perhaps you’ve been a member of more than one university’s hockey club and could form links to make this a reality! Please do get in touch.

The University of Exeter Hockey Club runs eleven competitive teams in BUCS leagues, Exeter remains a leading university for hockey, ranked no.1 nationally for men and no.2 for women in las

University. It would be brilliant to have a table of ladies hockey teams too – if alumnae of the hockey club would like to join the Christmas lunch, then the group could start to be truly representative of Exeter’s hockey teams over the last 30 years.

One day, the hockey club alumni hope it will be possible to arrange an alumni hockey day with a competition for alumni teams from a few universities – perhaps you’ve been a member of more than one university’s hockey club and could form links to make this a reality! Please do get in touch.

The University of Exeter Hockey Club runs eleven competitive teams in BUCS leagues, Exeter remains a leading university for hockey, ranked no.1 nationally for men and no.2 for women in last year’s BUCS rankings. Both reached their respective Championship finals last season.

Date: 27 September 2016