One year on from their Jaffa Super 6s success, The Hockey Paper goes behind the scenes at Buckingham Hockey Club to chart the small town club’s rise

THE CHAIRMAN

Gordon Wiseman remembers the first time he came across hockey. It was around 1978 when he went to watch the ladies play on the grass at Buckingham CC, their ancestral home which still encompasses their current clubhouse. Short of an umpire, he was asked to officiate despite never having watched a match, let alone one on a pitch which had a gradual one metre slope. Over 40 years on, he still umpires to this day.

The 66-year-old biochemist is also approaching 40 years as president and chairman of the club. Buckingham’s Jaffa Super 6s indoor success last year, he says, was his greatest moment of a four-decade reign. “They keep pushing the boundaries on my expectations,” says Wiseman of the women’s 1s. “I think it’s the first time any team in Buckingham town has become a national champion.”