It all began back in 1962, George Evans, Charlie Gosling, Chester Lee, Phil Embley and later Freddie English, who all worked or associated with C.H.2 tool room, expressed an interest in playing hockey.

Chester’s wife, Nan, played in the ladies team which was experiencing a revival due to a 17 year old called Joan Senior, a superb payer who went on to play for East Gloucester (sporting three English Internationals) and Gloucestershire.

So a mixed team was formed including the original five with Mac McCarthy in goal plus six ladies including Nan Lee, Doreen Weaver, Margaret Embley and Joan Senior.

George Evans, being the only member, at the time, without a regular girlfriend was the ideal person to organise the matches.


Fixtures included, Chelt. Civil Service, Martins, Burrows (printing firm) and some of the local Army and R.A.F teams.

More men were recruited, including Freddie English and Peter Smith and the wheels were set in motion for a men’s team.

The first official fixture list consisted of teams like Dowty Rotol and G.A.C and began in 1945 – 1946. Not having enough men to turn out every Saturday players were borrowed from other mixed sides who played mainly on Sundays

Life was more difficult in those days as the pitch had to be prepared, marked, nets erected and corner flags and balls made available, all this with the Saturday mornings being worked in the factory.

Changing and shower facilities were over in the C.H.1 factory toilets, so, permission had to be obtained from C.H.1 management. Phil Embley and George Evans arranged this as well as running raffles and Saturday dances in the canteen to raise cash for the balls, shirts, sticks and away coaches.

Many lunch hours were spent by George ‘phoning around local firms arranging guest players.

George Evans thus became the first secretary and general factotum until 1953.

In those days the captain was not important the team almost picked itself, but, Phil Embley must be considered as one of the earliest captains and officially he was captain elect in 1948 – 1949. More importantly Phil became the first treasurer and continued to serve in this post right up to 1999.

Early match fees were very flexible and cars were used whenever possible for away games. In later years fees became more important as petrol prices increased and generous company grants disappeared.

In 1977 the match fees were increased to 40p per game and gradually increased to £2 per match plus an annual membership of £5 in 1989 – 1990 and on to the present day fees of £6 per match plus an annual membership of £35 for 2001 – 2002 season. Along with match fees our expenses have increased with, umpires fees, hockey association membership, training & coaching charges, league entry fees and of course increases in petrol prices and refreshments are all costs we have had to cater for, not to mention the cost of astro turf pitches.


During the 1960’s and 1970’s ‘ The Newlands ‘ was regarded as one of the best pitches in the county and played host to several County Cup Finals and County matches, but, during the late 70’s and after the grounds man, Rodney Langstone had left, the pitch began to deteriorate, until the 1979 A.G.M decided, on the advice of the new grounds man, John Bird, no summer matches be played to allow time for reasonable preparation of a better quality pitch for 1980.


There being no improvement, a letter was drafted by the secretary, Dave Mundy in 1983 to Don Smith, the personnel director, to inspect our pitch with reference to safety and to discuss repair work required to bring the pitch back up to standard.

Not until 1989, ten years after our first complaint, did anything positive begin. Contractors were hired to dig up the pitch, re-grade, level and re-seed.


During the long three years of this work we played our home games on the Cheltenham Civil Service ground in Tewkesbury Road, Cheltenham, paid for by our Sports & Social Club, and despite it being a most satisfactory facility, Smiths Hockey Club went through the worst playing era in their history.

 September 1992 being the long awaited return to our new pitch, this proved to be short lived for the first team, as a league dictate ordered that teams had to play league matches on all weather pitches and so from the Newlands & Cheltenham C.S. we moved on to St.Benedicts School redgras, St.Edwards School redgras, Pates Astro and the latest Astro at St.Benedicts, the Newlands being used only for the odd mixed game and our 7 a side mixed tournament.


Six & seven a side tournaments have also played part in Smiths history, with attendance at the Ross and Hereford tournaments a regular occurrence until the late 80’s and in the early years Gloucester Civil Service and Leominster 6’s providing memorable events. Our own attempt at running a men’s’ 6 a side resulted in Smiths beating Evesham in the final. In recent years we have arranged a mixed 7 a side tournament at the Newlands in memory of Vic Matthews, with proceeds going to the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. Smiths have won this event in the year 2000 with 3 runners up positions to boast as well. Other notable successes have come at the M & G and Dowty mixed tournaments, with Pershore, Ross and Barnstaple events completing a healthy cross section of events regularly attended by our mixed and men’s sections.

 Smiths Hockey Club began life with a borrowed set of rugby shirts, these were mauve and grey hoops, later a set of blue and white quartered shirts were purchased and remained until the 80’s when two new sets were bought, each with individual numbers on the backs to comply with league regulations. One set, our official club colours, were blue and white, worn with white shorts and blue socks, the other set was red worn with white shorts and red socks, for use when the opposition colours clashed.

 After 35 years of friendly matches League Hockey was introduced, and whilst Smiths were initially opposed to league matches it was inevitable that we would have to join up. It was becoming more and more difficult to organise fixtures against teams of a comparable standard as they had already joined the league bandwagon, and so, in 1977 Smiths entered the South West of England League, and , for two seasons, found themselves a little out of their depth as the standards had not yet found their levels and we withdrew from the league until the 1983 – 1984 season. The standard of the league had begun to find its’ level and on 7th December 1983 an E.G.M was convened to discuss re-joining the league so as to guarantee our fixtures. It was decided 7 votes for to 4 votes against with one abstention to re-join in 1984 – 1985.

Always in the lower reaches of Division 3 North we continued to enjoy our hockey and had our most successful season to date when we won promotion to Division 2 North when finishing runner-up to Wooton Bassett. The following season we played some excellent hockey but it was not good enough to avoid our return to Division 3.

In 1991 – 1992 the league re-organisation saw divisions 2 & 3 amalgamate, thus we found the higher standard difficult, although not disgracing ourselves we finished bottom of the division, but, more importantly our spirit unbowed during our 50th anniversary, an anniversary celebrated with a memorable dinner and dance held at the Frogmill in Shipton Oliffe and commemorated by a keepsake key fob for all the attendees.

League results have continued to have good seasons and not so good, and after finishing a creditable fourth in Division 3 North East in 1999 – 2000, the league was again restructured and we found ourselves effectively promoted, pitching us with the top 4 from our division and the bottom 8 from division 2. The new division was to be called 4 North East and Smiths exceeded all expectations by finishing third to Bath Buccaneers ‘C’ and Firebrands ‘C’. Yet another restructure, and with the loss of 2 strong players in Pim Bouman, who returned to Holland to live, and Chris Smallwood who left for Lansdown to improve his already promising talent we felt the backlash in our diamond jubilee season and lost every league game to return to a level from where we hope to regroup and become competitive once more.

With the league now Smiths domestic focus our highlight of every season is the tour and the Torbay Easter Festival, and, for the mixed team, the August Bank holiday North Devon Festival at Barnstaple.


Pre –Torbay years, a tour was arranged to Bournemouth with games at Wareham and Blandford Forum. Bournemouth Municipal Offices, Bournemouth Gas Company and Weymouth provided the opposition with results favouring Smiths ‘ 2 wins and 1 draw ‘. The taste for festival type hockey set the scene for George Evans approach to the ‘ Paignton Festival ‘.

During holidays in Totnes George used to visit Goodrington Sands every morning and found he could park on the road in front of South Sands Hotel, hence when he wrote for accommodation quotes ‘ South Sands ‘ was the first choice. At a meeting called to outline arrangements a number of members thought South Sands might be too cheap, but, were persuaded to attend on the understanding they could use it for B & B and have meals in the town. ‘ How wrong they were to doubt ‘.

South Sands Hotel has hosted the Cleevillians right up until 2000 when a decision by its’ owners, and , good friends to the Cleevillians, Tony & Cecille Cahill, to convert the hotel into holiday homes was made. This resulted in the move down the road to the Summerhill, where the team have settled into what they now regard as home.

The Festival remained the Paignton Festival until 1967, then, in 1968 expanded to be called the ‘ Torbay  Festival ‘. Smith’s first festival was entered in the name of Smiths, Cheltenham, but, with all the other teams using nom-de-plumes the name ‘ Cleevillians ‘ was used for the 1954 festival and done so ever since.

Results, as would be expected, have been mixed down the years, but Cleevillians have never come away from the festival losing every match. Conversely they had their best ever festival in 1960 when they won all 5 of their fixtures and have since been unbeaten on four other occasions, 1963, 1983, 1988 and 1998 the latest of these emulating the 5 victories in 1960, but drawing 2 other fixtures.


Reflecting upon our long history it would be remiss to forget that life began as a mixed team, and, in 1978 after a friendly mixed match had been played a discussion took place between those interested in forming a regular mixed hockey team again. A temporary committee was formed consisting of Neil Flanagan, Liana Wilce and Sally Rutland, and, on November 13th 1978 at a meeting with the men’s hockey committee the mixed team was reborn with the 3 officials becoming Captain, Vice Captain and Secretary/Treasurer respectively.

Indeed, it is our mixed team who have had the most success when it comes to trophies and can boast wins in several 7 a side tournaments, namely Dowty/M & G and our own Smiths event as well as being placed 3rd & 4th at the North Devon Festival in Barnstaple on a couple of occasions. Barnstaple and our Smiths 7 a side tournaments being two events where both men’s and mixed sides get together during the season. The Barnstaple Festival has been attended by both men’s and mixed sides for the past 5 years with the mixed having attended since 1991.

Throughout our history Smiths have never been renown for their goal scoring, but there are three goals corers of note with whom we have to be proud. Top of the list has to go to Vince Clark, he has not stopped scoring for any of our teams ever since he joined us in 1992, but his season of note was 1997 – 1998 when he scored a remarkable 98 goals for men’s and mixed teams netting 50 for the mixed. Only two other players have hit the 50 mark in one season, Ben Johnson and Jim Venn. It is debatable whether Vince’s feat of 50 or Jim & Ben had the harder task as the latter two were in the days when offside could catch many a striker out, on the other hand Vince has probably scored his against consistently better opposition due to the huge progress the standard of the game has made and the advent of league hockey.

Smiths Hockey Club also owe a huge debt for their long history to the many individuals who have served the club through thick and thin giving freely of their precious time to take on committee posts. Probably the most thankless task is that of secretary and the spell of 12 years by our first ever secretary George Evans has never been surpassed, but, Vic Matthews with 9 years in two spells, Dave Gill with 6 years and several years as mixed secretary, Tony Pierce with 6 years in two spells, Reg Clifford with 6 years whilst also playing in goal for the club and Charlie Taylor, who, whilst not playing very often still served in the post for two years.


Captains too have played their part and Stan Marchant has served in this post for 9 seasons in two spells, but for continued captaincy Ian Scott and Martin Halls have both commanded the troops for 6 successive seasons followed by Ben Johnson with 5.

Finally three tributes remain. Top of this list is Phil Embley who has served the section as treasurer for more than 50 years, remarkable endurance indeed.

The second mention is for Bill Heathcote, non-playing Chairman, Umpire, regular transport to away games and one of the originals who helped to reform the mixed team.

Last, but not least, Neil Flanagan, who has served as both men’s’ and mixed captain and has taken on the responsibility of treasurer since Phil Embley’s retirement.

The year 2002 saw the 60th anniversary of Smiths Hockey Club, alas this was to be its’ last under the name of Smiths. At the AGM in May 2002 the new club was born, ‘ Cleevillians ‘, yes our Torbay nom-de-plume was adopted as our club name in an attempt to try and recruit players into a club not seen to be a factory side and thus for workers only.

New players arrived in the form of Matt Clapham, Mark Johns, Graham Coates and Ben Willis after a concerted recruitment campaign, and the first league game of the new campaign saw the first victory ( 5-0 over Weston -s-Mare ) for two seasons, as we lost every league match in 2001 – 2002.

As Cleevillians Hockey Club fortunes began to improve, this started with the club entering a mixed side in the Bentham 7 a-side indoor league. Despite finishing one place off the bottom of the league the club had made a further step towards becoming a modern hockey club.

The following outdoor season saw a reverse of the previous season’s fortunes with the club finishing runner up in the Gerrard West League division north east western district 2 to champions Clevedon, who ironically, changed their name to Somerset Gryphons for the 2004-2005 season. More progress was made on the recruitment front with Frank Fairbrother joining us and there were encouraging signs from junior members Sean & Toby Flanagan who were given experience in the mens side.

The mixed XI also had its’ success, losing only one match to Marlborough Stirling in 2003-2004 and also reaching the final of the Matthews 7 a-side pot.

At the following mixed team’s A.G.M it was decided to strengthen the club by changing name from Smiths to Cleevillians and centralise all finances as one club, both mens & mixed changing strip to navy blue shirts and gaining a sponsor, ‘ Living Well ‘ for their smart new club tops. Much of this change has been down to the efforts of club secretary, Tony Pierce, without who Cleevillians would not have made this dramatic progress.

September 2004 and the daunting task of life back in division 1 north east, western district saw the clubs’ improvement confirmed with the mens side spending all season in the top 4 of the division thus establishing themselves at the highest league level in their history.

The mixed team gave a first season to Scott Mcilquham to develop his hockey and were rewarded with 11 goals from the 16 year old.

The Torbay Easter festival was again entered with Cleevillians achieving the fourth best record at the 2005 event losing only one match, scoring 29 goals and conceding only 8. This was a particularly satisfying festival as the team contained no fewer than 9 players under the age of 20 but still able to provide some experience in the form of Pete Hewings, still able to turn out at the festival at the age of 73.

The 2005 – 2006 season was one Cleevillians entered with some optimism with a committee who had served us well the previous season.


Further league restructuring saw the formation of the Hereford and Glos Divisions 1 & 2, and Cleevillians were placed into division 1. Three debutants in Nat Maynott, Dave Kennedy and Alex Bromfield contributed to a league campaign where we won 8 drew 2 and lost 11 matches to finish comfortably in the upper half of the table. The mixed side continued to enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of Sunday morning hockey led by Graham Coates as captain and enjoyed an equal share of results in winning 9, losing 10 scoring 54 goals and conceding 53.

Two great successes of the 2005 – 2006 season were the Vic Matthews 7 a-side Pot, held at the excellent facility of Bishops Cleeve Football Club, and, the mens Easter Festival at Torbay.

For the first time since leaving ‘ Smiths Clubhouse ‘ we needed to find a new venue for our annual mixed charity event in memory of Vic Matthews. With Rob Link, Chris Smallwood and Phil Adcock organising the event we were in good hands and Bishops Cleeve A.F.C proved to be superb hosts, allowing us full use of their excellent pitch and club facilities. The event was won by Newent, who beat Cleevillians ‘B’ side in the final. This tournament was held over from the previous summer due to the resources at Smiths becoming unavailable to us.

The 2006 Matthews Pot was again held at Bishops Cleeve and once again a thoroughly enjoyable and successful tournament was run with St. Gregory’s Hockey Club beating Cleevillians in the final and Cancer Research again benefiting from some generous contributions and raffle.

Following the promise of the previous season’s Torbay Festival we were able to take a large squad brimming with young players to Devon, and with some thoughtful selections and careful handling of the squad by Rob Link and Shaun Cullimore another successful festival was experienced when the young side won 6 matches out of 7, losing only to merit table winners Midwives in an excellent match in Dawlish. This squad finished second in the table scoring 34 goals & conceding only 10.

Despite another successful season for the club changes were inevitable. Dave Sellwood, who had served us well as captain for the past 3 years decided to stand down and the reigns were passed to Tony Pierce who added this big role to his already huge commitment of club fixture secretary, whilst the mixed captaincy was taken on by Hayley McIlquham and the mixed match secretary went to Sara Thompson, who filled the shoes vacated by Phil Adcocks long service to the role.

During the closed season things began to look a little glum as Matt Clapham, Alex Bromfield, Frank Fairbrother and Mark Johns all ceased to be available to Cleevillians and the Pierce brothers availability was to be curtailed with University and work commitments. But, it was not to be all bad news as we were able to add several youngsters to our squad in the form of Scott McIlquham, Ben Link, Tom North, Dan Fairweather and Barnaby Wakeford, all under 20 years of age, to compliment the promise of Shaun and Toby Flanagan. In addition, Graham Marshall joined us from Norwich seconds and Andy Davies returned to the club after an absence of several years.