A
quick start to the season has seen the three sides operating within the ladies hockey club waste no time in getting back to winning ways. The club secured a huge eleven victories as well as one draw in their first fourteen competitive ties in BUCS and seperate Saturday leagues. After falling back to the Scottish 2A Wednesday league last season after two successive promotions, club president Alexandra Eadie believes the first team are more than capable of earning a third promotion in four years by topping their BUCS league this term. When asked if promotion was the main aim for the side, the student wasted no time in confirming the goal. “Definitely,” she replied. “We feel with the strength of the team this year promotion back to the 2A is definitely possible and something we are striving for. “From speaking to first team captain Pamela Tait I can also say that the first team are not only aiming to be promoted in BUCS, but also in their national league - from Division Three to Two. It’ll be tough but I think they’re up to the challenge. “The season has been fantastic so far. We have had a large intake of new players of all standards but which raised the general standard of each team greatly and the club is bigger than it has ever been by a long shot. We are very optimistic for the season.” As the athlete touched on with her closing statements on that point, it is certainly not only the first team at the hockey club that are setting up for a big season. While the elites of the team will aim for promotions
WOMEN’S HOCKEY
around the board, the second team are currently reaping the rewards of a successful past season and subsequent promotion to the Scottish 5A for this year. The third team meanwhile will look to develop those who are less experienced and work towars a further promotion. Eadie continued: “With the new intake of players the standard of play has definitely increased. “That’s helped relieve some of the pressure on our second team who after being promoted last year are in a higher and more challenging BUCS league. I feel so far we have shown we belong in this league. “The second captain Rachel Addison says their main aim is to enjoy our new BUCS league and use the existing coach and the new assistant coached we introduced this year to really
push the players to progress. “Aurora Gallacher, our third team captain, is looking to successfully introduce new players to the game, help them to work well as a team, which can be difficult for new players, and even strive for a promotion. We haven’t lost a game yet in the teams in the BUCS league.” When it comes to the intertwinement of the three teams, interaction is normally established off the pitch rather than on it. “We have the three teams to cater to each player’s ability and we feel we place the girls in the team that suits them best. “We mostly have seperate training sessions so we often bring the whole club together to socialise. Recently we had a social with the men’s hockey club and had our initiation night for the new girls to be really introduced. n Both were very successful.” #BleedGreen Autumn 2013 29