GORE COURT HOCKEY CLUB - 100 years old !!

Hockey was introduced to Sittingbourne in 1908 by Richard Stephens Jackson, an auctioneer and estate agent in the town.   He was an amateur footballer of Corinthian standard, but maybe he felt that the brickies and papermakers of Sittingbourne AFC were not quite his scene.   Whatever the reason, he moved to the rapidly growing sport of hockey, and was instrumental in calling a Public Meeting in the Town Hall which led to the formation of the Sittingbourne Hockey Club.   Jackson was the Secretary of the Gore Court Cricket Club, and was able to persuade them to let the new hockey club use their ground at Bell Road during the winter – provided that they took responsibility for moving the sheep off the pitch and penning them during games!

 

The Club’s activities in 1908 were limited to games amongst themselves; very necessary, as few of the men who joined had played hockey before.   However, on October 2, 1909, the men took the field for the first time and scored a convincing 3-1 win over Gillingham.   The ladies were not quite so successful in their first venture a few weeks later, going down 2-3 to St. Stephens, Canterbury.   In that first men’s side was Montgomery Dixon, a member of a Teynham farming family who, with their relatives the Woods, have been one of the mainstays of the Club.   There are currently three Dixons playing in the men’s and ladies’ teams, including the Men’s 1st XI captain, Will Dixon - the fourth generation of the family to play for the Club.

                                                         

  

At the end of this first season, the Club had nearly fifty playing members, and developed steadily over the next few years.   However, the outbreak of war in 1914 brought a halt.   At the behest of the Hockey Association, all hockey stopped – many of the members must have gone into the Forces, anyway.   Although the Club restarted in 1919, membership was small and mainly mixed matches were played, and in 1921, ‘only after some hesitation’ did they decide to carry on for another season.  This was rather ironic, for 1921/22 proved to be by far the best season so far – so much so that the Club took the step of joining the County Hockey association so that members could be considered for the County side.   In 1923, RJ Hulburd played three times for Kent – the Club’s first County Cap.   That season also saw the first appearance of one of the Club’s ‘greats’ – Walter Wood, a centre-forward whose

goal-scoring exploits are unlikely to be bettered. He was joined the following year by his cousin, Stewart Dixon;  both players soon made the County side and Stewart was Captain from 1929 – 1934.  With their younger brothers, Doug Wood and Ronald Dixon, they formed the nucleus of a remarkable Sittingbourne side.   In 1927/8, the team was unbeaten, with 23 wins in 26 games;  of the 137 goals scored, Walter scored 66, but, in fact, every member of the side (including the goalkeeper!) scored at least one.   When they were finally beaten, in January 1929, they could look back on a run of 43 games without defeat, including 24 consecutive victories.

 

The Ladies team had struggled in the post-war years, and, indeed, had folded up in 1924.  They reformed in 1927, and by 1929, while not quite matching the exploits of the men, they were a well-established side.   However, at this high point in its career, the Club abruptly found itself threatened with extinction due to the loss of the ground.   Although the Cricket Club had been using the Bell Road ground for 30 years, they had never had more than an annual tenancy.   The building of the Avenue of Remembrance in 1923 had taken a considerable slice from the north side of the ground, but, worse, it had opened up that side of the town to development, and eventually the owner of the ground had to tell the Clubs that he would have to terminate their tenancy, as he required the land for his own use.   Fortunately, help with the twin problems of finding a ground and raising the funds to buy it was forthcoming from the Andrews family.

 

 

 

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