St Neots Hockey Club have been looking at ways to help their growth on and off the pitch - and they believe a sponsor will help them do both.
Landmark IFA, a firm of independent financial advisers based in Stamford, has had a long association with the club, as several of its employees are also members at Saints, or parents of players.
And when Saints decided to invest in a Veo camera just before the pandemic struck, Landmark offered to pay for the monthly subscription.
“We already sponsor a local football team up in Peterborough and we were only too pleased to help Saints,” said founder and CEO Kevin Mullins.
The camera, used by may football clubs, is being taken up by an increasing number of hockey clubs.
“Veo allows you to track every single player for every single moment of the match," said St Neots vice-chair and ladies’ first-team manager, Nik Payne.
"It breaks down their performance statistically but also allows players to see their positioning at key moments.
“It means after the match players can see what we’ve been shouting about to them from the side."
The club's chairwoman, Helen Sargeant, says the support from sponsors such as Landmark is vital for clubs like them.
She said: "All sports clubs are suffering following lockdown, as numbers have fallen away all around the country.
"Firms like Landmark give us a real boost. Their generosity ensures we can be confident about our future.”
On the pitch St Neots enjoyed a mixed bag of results, with the only wins against Haverhill for the ladies’ thirds and against Bourne Deeping for the men’s seconds.
The first teams both lost hard with the men beaten by Watton and the ladies by Cambridge City.
There were some heavy defeats across at St Ives but the men's first team bucked that sequence by beating Cambridge South 6-0.
James Harris got two of them while there was one each for Mike Jenner, Pete Liddle, Adam Maltby and Adam Wilson to maintain their unbeaten start.
The seconds also won, beating Spalding 2-1 with goals from Alex Grange and Jacob Weir, but the only other positive result was a 1-1 draw for the ladies' second team with City of Peterborough, Lucy Harris the scorer.
The ladies' first team lost 2-0 to Wisbech Town.
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