Old Kingstonian Hockey Club

Notes on the History of the Scorpion Hockey Club

The Scorpion Hockey Club owes its origin to a desire to play hockey on Sunday. That is not so stupid as it sounds today as playing games on a Sunday at that time was frowned upon in 1930. Many grounds were closed for sport on that premise alone. Rarely could the Hampton Wick ground be used but thanks to Arthur Hulland occasional access was obtained to use the Malden Wanderers ground at New Malden.

In 1929/30 a fixture list was drawn up which can only be described as primitive. The Sunday fixtures were a great success and suggestions were made for the Sunday fixtures to be included in the regular fixture list of the Old Kingstonian Hockey Club. This was not considered possible at a number of Old Boys were members of the Hornets - largely sponsored by Dulwich H.C., so in 1930, fifteen OKHC members met at the Railway Tavern in Hampton Wick and decided to run a Sunday hockey side called the Scorpions.

Arthur Hulland was to be captain, Leslie Whitbread vice, Norman Robinson team, Jim Denniford match Secretaries. And so the Scorpions flourished, and not at any time during the period 1930 - 1940 was it beholden in any way either financially or otherwise to the Old Kingstonian Hockey Club. There was no subscription. Any game played for instance at Hampton Wick or New Malden involving expense was paid for at the time.

There was little hockey during the period of the Second World War, but after the war Sunday hockey became very popular and the Scorpion fixture list was incorporated into OKHC fixture card. In the 1950s and 60s the OKs used to run two Scorpion sides which were very successful.. It had an extensive fixture list and played matches as far North as Norwich (the Grasilles), the South coast against (Littlehampton) and Devises (Moonrakers). The Scorpion v Hornets fixture was one of the highlights of the season with both sides packed with current international players, and drew a large crowd of spectators. The Sunday fixtures helped considerably with the economics of running hockey clubs.

This was all pre-breathalyser and there were some good parties afterwards - the fixtures with the Hairy Goats of Maidenhead being particularly noteworthy. The Scorpions also used to play at the Worthing and other Easter Festivals and played in the Bloomendaal Festival in Holland.

The changes in the hockey fixture list with the switch to artificial pitches and league hockey on Sundays brought about the demise of the Scorpions and most of the other Sunday sides. The better players could not participate on Sundays and artificial pitches were not available for matches.

Sunday matches in the Scorpion era were certainly very popular. The changing hockey and social environment mean that it is unlikely that Sunday hockey of such a good standard can be played in the future on a regular basis.