Stalwart John Thorne Retires

John Thorne hangs up his whistle….

67 years ago, as a 13 year old school boy, John Thorne first started playing hockey and hasn't stopped being involved since then.

He had an illustrious playing career captaining Dulwich and Middlesex when they won the County Championship in 1977, having already captained the England Indoor Hockey Team between 1973 and 1977. He has coached and umpired since - latterly as an umpire for Amersham and Chalfont Hockey Club when we merged with Gerrard Cross Hockey Club. He has been a stalwart of our umpiring team for the last 3 years - turning up week in and week out in some pretty extreme weather at times.

John has recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's so has decided that the time has come to finally hang up his whistle. We would like to thank John for all that he has done for the club with his umpiring - whilst acknowledging his very lengthy involvement with the game he loves. We look forwards to seeing him up at the club supporting the bar (and the teams) from time to time.

If anybody would like to contribute to Parkinson's UK ( https://www.parkinsons.org.uk/ ) to help find a cure for the disease he would be very happy.