The STMHC is continuing to grow with our playing membership being over 230. More ladies are joining up thanks to the efforts of our Ladies’ Rep, Charlotte Barrett. Meanwhile John Swift and Carlos Michelson have been great at encouraging ‘youngsters’ to join Thistles, extending our age spread to 50s and 55s and adding a welcome boost to the O60’s. Ian Chitty and Neil Ward have taken on the 65s and 70s and spreading the word across the border. At present though we don’t have a 75s coordinator and in the meantime Sandy Weir has been willing to help out.
Other initiatives this year include Charlotte who has also spent many hours chasing up SH to provide us with the results of their Survey from a year ago! While Paul Bateson has pulled together an excellent insurance proposition which will be discussed later. Kit coordinator Chris Heeps finalised the arrangements with PSL and the shop is now live. For the link for ordering playing shirts and to access the shop please go to the website under Members Area and you can email Chris at the kit address shown.
kit@scottishthistleshockey.org
I’m your link for GK smocks, with the help of Scott Chisholm and his connections with Mercian –
secretary@scottishthistleshockey.org
Treasurer, Jim Chisholm, has again been working hard to keep our finances in check. Along with Ian McCreath, they have produced a very comprehensive Membership List system, where we now all have our individual code. To assist Jim, can I please ask you to keep your personal accounts in credit, and have any payments made in a timeous manner. When doing this, could you please email Jim, explaining what the money going in is for – tops, event fees, etc – at
treasurer@scottishthistleshockey.org
Many thanks to Ian McCreath for all his efforts with keeping the website up to date, and for organising events, tours, Event Polls, age-group co-ordinators, etc. All information on tournaments and events, past and future, can be found on our website – https://scottishthistleshockey.org/
If you have anything you wish added to the website, please email it to Ian at –
sixtiesplus@scottishthistleshockey.org
Our annual trips to Swansea, Jersey, Septemberfest in Cambridge, Dundee, Wigton, Lille, Wellingborough (Ladies), Tilburg, Namur (Ladies), and Cockermouth continue to provide opportunities for all age-groups, both ‘open’ and ‘selected’ tournaments.
Our Ladies section has doubled in size to 51 members and attended four events in 2024 including sending two teams to September Fest in Cambridge and in 2025 two teams were also at Namur in April. Charlotte can be contacted at:
ladies@scottishthistleshockey.org
We have our new men’s 50s in Valencia at the Euros at this very moment and an email address to John Swift for all the under 60s squads:
fiftiesplus@scottishthistleshockey.org
Other events coming up include Loch Lomond (Ladies), the IGMHF at Nottingham, Swansea, the Euros in Nottingham, Jersey and the Septemberfest (Men & Ladies).
Unfortunately, our Dundee festival won’t be going ahead this year due to date clashes with bigger events. We have also had to withdraw our men’s 65s, 70s and 75s from the Euros in Ludwigsburg due to lack of numbers.
The Dundee Festival WILL go ahead in 2026, under the new name of the Mike McInally International Hockey Festival, in honour of our dear President, Mike, who so sadly passed away last October after a typical ‘Mike’ battle, first against a stroke, then against a brain tumour. His funeral was very well attended, with players from Thistles, Dunfermline City, Dundee Wanderers, and further afield, showing the effect Mike had on people, and their respect towards him and his family. Mike leaves a huge void in our club, and is missed, but I know that the Executive and fellow members will ensure that his legacy will continue for many years.
Stuart Stephen continues to look after new members for the men’s section and be our link with SMH. Alan Parker has resigned from the Executive and is thanked for all his work including setting up the website - he hasn’t ‘escaped’ yet though as new projects can arise!
I would also like to thank all the age-group co-ordinators, captains, managers, warm-up specialists, taxi bookers, face-mask and ball collectors, and everyone that does a wee bit to take some of the workload off the executive.
Huge thanks to Norrie Springford for auditing the club’s account for many a year, and to John Connaghan for being ‘persuaded’ by Jim to do the audit for this year.
If there is any way in which you think you can help the club, please contact any of the Executive.
I wish everyone a very successful hockey summer this year, enjoy it, get a tan, make friends, and persuade players to join us!
John Lees
Secretary
STMHC