The History of Broxbourne Hockey Club

Club History - the first season  - Author - Mark Dell

Broxbourne Hockey Club was formed in 1903, but there is reference in the Hertfordshire Mercury to a Cheshunt Hockey club being beaten in their match at Broxbourne against Royal Observatory in January 1899. Where this ground was in Broxbourne it has not been possible to ascertain and it is unclear whether this club subsequently became Broxbourne or, perhaps more likely they moved down the road to Cheshunt. Indeed on 4 November 1899 there is reference to Cheshunt playing at Broxbourne (incidentally losing 13-1 to Southfields) and on 25 November 1899 they lost to Crystal Palace at Cheshunt. It seems likely that they had the use of two grounds and were still reported as playing at Broxbourne in March 1901.

It appears that hockey was an emerging sport in the late 19th century with a Herts County team in action against Epsom College in February 1899 and against Kidbrooke in November 1899 at St Albans. The County side would not have had many clubs to choose their players from as there were few in existence at that time, the main ones being Royston, Rickmansworth, Hitchin, St Albans and Cheshunt. West Herts were added to this list in 1900 or possibly earlier. But hockey was poorly reported in the local press at the time or matches were few and far between as reports were sparse.

By March 1902 Bishop's Stortford H.C. were playing matches and on 10 October 1903 Broxbourne played what was most likely their first competitive match, beating Royal Observatory by 4 goals to 1 at Broxbourne. Unfortunately the Hertfordshire Mercury of 17 October 1903 gives scant details of the game, barely conceding two lines of text to this historic event.

A week later the Mercury of 24 October 1903 gives this report with details of the Broxbourne team, but unfortunately does not list the scorers.

" Hockey - Broxbourne v Northumberland Park A very pleasant game was played on Saturday and resulted in a win for the home team by 7 goals to 2.Teams : Broxbourne : Naysmith, goal; Jeaffreson and H. Edelsten, backs; Holford, Bedwell (Capt) and Newbery, half-backs; Moore, Newsom, Hunt, Smurthwaite and C.W. Edelsten, forwards. "

The following week (31/10/1903) the Mercury records that Broxbourne beat Bushey Grove 6-3 with the team as follows : A. Newsom, Jefferson, H.M. Edelsten, Holford, Wheeler, Bedwell, Naismith, Moir, J. Hunt, Smirthwaite, and C.W. Edelsten. Other results recorded for the rest of the 1903/04 season are as follows :

31/10/03 - Bowes Park 1 Broxbourne 2 7/11/03 - Broxbourne 6 Norwood 6

21/11/03 - Royal Observatory 3 Broxbourne 1 (Broxbourne's first recorded defeat)

5/12/03 - Broxbourne 3 Great Western Railway Clerks 1.

Team : Case, D. Jefferson, Naismith, H.M. Edelsten, Cambridge, Holford, C.W. Edelsten, Smaithwaite, C. Raincock, D. Raincock, Catling. Note the third different spelling of Smirthwaite in as many months.

A.L. Bedwell missing from the above line-up, had represented Hertfordshire against Cambridge University at half-back on Wednesday 2 December 1903 at Clarence Park, St Albans where Herts lost 5-0 and he was the first Broxbourne player to do so.

Continuing with the results :

12/12/03 - Teddington 0 Broxbourne 11

19/12/03 - Broxbourne 8 Bishop's Stortford 1

2/1/04 - Broxbourne 10 Hatch End 0

9/1/04 - Derrick Wanderers 0 Broxbourne 1 (at Blackheath) Broxbourne 2nd XI 3 Malden 2nd XI 2

16/1/04 - Bishop's Stortford 0 Broxbourne 5 2nd XI 4 Dr Melville Smith's XI 0

By now the popularity of the sport was obviously increasing as Broxbourne were able to field two teams on occasions. For 16 January these were as follows :

1st XI - C.W. Edelsten, Smirthwaite, C. Raincock, D. Raincock, Catling, Newbery, Bedwell, Holford, H.M. Edelsten, Jefferson, Case. 2nd XI - C. Foster, Simpson, Naismith, Newsom, Bamber, Foster, Leslie, White, Shepherd, Cambridge, J.F. Newsom.

23/1/04 - Broxbourne "A" 5 Brondesbury 2nd XI

2 6/2/04 - Broxbourne "A" 2 Great Western Railway 2nd XI 4

13/2/04 - Erith 2 Broxbourne 5

The first representative match was held at Broxbourne on Monday 15 February 1904 when Cambridge University beat Southern Counties H.A. by 3 goals to Nil.

20/2/04 - Broxbourne 1 Guildhall 3 (D. Raincock the scorer)

27/2/04 - Broxbourne 4 Brondesbury 2 24/2/04 (Wednesday)

2/3/04 - Broxbourne 6 Norwood 4

12/3/04 - Guildhall 6 Broxbourne 5 (at Manor Park)

On Wednesday 16 March 1904 Hertfordshire played Essex at Broxbourne and were defeated 8-2. D. Raincock and A.L. Bedwell were in the Herts line-up with the former scoring one of the goals.

19/3/04 - Broxbourne 3 Northumberland Park 3

23/3/04 - Broxbourne 4 Norwood 4

All in all it would appear to have been a very successful first season for Broxbourne Hockey Club with 13 wins, 3 draws and 3 defeats of the matches recorded in the Hertfordshire Mercury, although there may have been others that went unrecorded by the only local paper of the time.

Events in brief...