CREWE ViAGRANTS
VETERANS HOCKEY
".... THE STIFF OPPOSITION"
SEMEL ERRO, SEMPER ERRO (Once a wanderer, always a wanderer)
The "Veterans" are over 35 for most competitions, although certain tournaments/ festivals request over 40's. Home | News & forthcoming events: - THIS SITE HAS A BIAS TOWARDS CREWE VETERANS HOCKEY .... However ... there are links here for other information. Here is some background information about the roots of : - Crewe Vagrants Hockey Club (right click on the following and open in new window) "Link to Crewe Vagrants Club site (hockey section)"
Originally Crewe Vagrants was only a Cricket Club. In the 1930s Doddington Cricket Club looking for a decent piece of ground came across a piece of land in Newcastle Road, Willaston. A clubhouse was put up at the ground (located roughly where the current cricket scoreboard is) and this part of Willaston reverberated with the sound of ‘leather on willow’. Meanwhile hockey was being played at wherever a pitch was available (wandering from one venue to another like "vagrants") one location was Gresty Road, Crewe at the Permanent Way Club (or the P Way as it was known – ask any old railwayman!), the sports club/ground of British Rail, Crewe. The hockey section of the P Way Club moved to its Willaston base as the Vagrants in 1955/56. By hockey we mean at that time - English head stick; canvas hockey ankle boots (with a rubber ankle patch; rules including the roll on, attackers on the 25 yard line for short corners and a centre bully to start a game; and ‘friendlies’ (no leagues in sight!!) To accommodate the growth of the Club a new, wooden Clubhouse was erected adjacent to the Newcastle Road in 1965 (deemed a temporary building until the Government of the day made its mind up about putting a new road through!!) The Club continued to grow, extending its sports on offer to include squash (the Alvaston Hall Squash Club moved to join Vagrants) in the early 1970s and the LMR Cricket Club amalgamated with Vagrants in 1976. In early 1990s the Vagrants was joined on site by Crewe and Nantwich Rugby Club Meanwhile, thanks to Mr. Prescot and his growth plan for new roads across the country Crewe Vagrants found itself in the planned line of a major road improvement to create a substantial link to M6. With compensation for the loss of some of its ground and a successful lottery bid a new 3rd Clubhouse and an astro pitch arrived on site in 1995. At the time, Crewe Vagrants was one of only a very small number of hockey clubs in Cheshire to have an astro pitch on the same site as its clubhouse. Recently, the Club has generated a multisport website, and the hockey section has both mens and ladies teams. Vagrants field four men's teams and three ladies teams. |
