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They moniker themselves as the ‘ultimate hockey family team’ and this south east Cornwall side has every reason for their self-billed title.
The Caradon Clans have been competing in the Plymouth Mixed summer league and features an array of family members across the squad which won the division with their last top-of-the-table game.
The squad features five families, despite some players with the same name but unrelated. A clan’s a clan, however, and all are members of Caradon’s senior teams which play in the regular season.
Caradon always field three teams into the summer league, but this year added a fourth team with a difference, with several families wanting to join forces.
“Winning the division in their first season certainly shows there must have been some telepathy there,” joked Caradon’s Helen Manley, “and even better, there were no arguments! Everyone just enjoyed getting out on summer evenings playing hockey together.”
First, there’s EJ Mullis and her husband Neil, who play alongside their children, Sadie and Harvey. Then there’s Brother and sister Beth and Tom Harris.
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Zoe Harris plays in goal, with husband Ian and children Charlie and Dan in outfield, while Pippa Hedley runs out with her children Ben and Izzy. Finally, the Lockett family, husband and wife duo Shelley and Dave Lockett, with daughter Erryn. Now that’s a clan.
Manley adds: “We’ve always been a family club, with many father and son combos on the men’s teams as well as mother and daughters. The younger ones grow up with it, and come up through our extensive junior section altogether as friends and make their way up into the senior teams.
“Parents have been known to introduce their children, equally children who take up the sport often inspire their parents to join in.
“The bonus for the Clans in this case is that they all live in the same village so a warm down at the local after each match was an added bonus of playing together!”
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