Ranges Ladies Hockey Club
History of our Club

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RANGES - THE CLUB'S PROGRESS

Dale �Ranges� was founded in time for season 1994 by Lindsay Gregory & Pat Halden. Lindsay, at the time, was Junior Coordinator for the Dale Junior Hockey Club. He recognised that there was nowhere for the junior girls to go when they were too old for mixed junior hockey.

Lindsay asked Pat for her advice in setting up a Ladies Hockey Club and together they formed the �Ranges�. Our name evolved because many of our players lived along the Darling escarpment and the name �Ranges� seemed appropriate. (Both Tracey Halden & Lindsay Gregory thought of the name). The Club was originally named Dale Ranges Ladies Hockey Club, but in 1999 it was decided to drop the Dale, as many players were not from the Armadale area, therefore it became Ranges Ladies Hockey Club.

The team was entered into the Hills Women�s Hockey Association, which is a Country Association. The atmosphere is more relaxed than Metropolitan hockey and is less expensive. All teams play at the same venue each week and a free afternoon tea and chat follow games.

�Ranges� is based in Armadale and our training ground is Bob Blackburn Reserve.

In �Ranges� first year we fielded one team of 17 girls, then two teams in our second and third years of competition. Our fourth season (1997) included one Metropolitan team and we fielded two teams in the Hills Association. Unfortunately the Metropolitan team had difficulty finding the required number of players each week and although the girls who made up the team played exceptionally well, numbers dwindled. It was not feasibly viable to enter a team the following year.

Many players have passed through �Ranges� ranks since its origin. The reason being that some have joined Metropolitan teams; fairing well, while others have moved to the country and interstate and few players have decided to start families.

Over the years we have attracted girls with a wide range of hockey ability; they are from the very beginner, who wishes to try the sport to see if they would like to play it seriously, to the extremely experienced player. Some of these players have not played for several years or since school days. They are all accommodated within our Club policy.

Hockey is a fine sport and compared to many other sports it is relatively safe. It is a non-contact game and has had some interesting changes made to the rules, playing surfaces and structure. The rules have changed considerably over the past years due to the need to make it a spectator friendly sport, suitable for television. The playing surfaces have gone from grass, with sometimes very rough surfaces to the smooth synthetic surfaces, as seen on television being played at National and International competitions. More and more players are getting the chance to experience playing on these surfaces as they are being laid, not only in the Cities, but in country areas also. Because the flat, true surface has made the trapping and manoeuvring of the ball more precise the rules were in need of change, this is why we have seen many rule changes over the past years. These changes to the rules have been adapted to the grass surfaces equally as well as on the turf surfaces.

Our Association gets the opportunity to play on these surfaces at Country Week each year. Country Week is held over a weekend in the month of June or July. Teams are chosen to represent the Hills Women�s Hockey Association, from the girls who play within the Association. Not all representative teams get the opportunity to play on the synthetic surface as time does not allow, therefore the higher grades usually get more time allotted to them, this includes our Associations highest grade and veterans grade.

Prepared by Pat Halden.(2006)
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Ranges Ladies Hockey Club.
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