Dundee 2024: a great event and all the feedback is how much people enjoyed themselves. The matches were played in great spirit with rivalry balanced out by a real sense of sharing the reason why we all love playing hockey. Dinner at the Invercarse Hotel was well appreciated with the disco afterwards a mix of "I bet you look good on the dance floor", some dad-dancing and loads of tired legs.
The umpires self organised with nary a problem. Players' commented that the umpiring itself was decent (which is high praise indeed in Scotland) whilst the umpires felt that the festival spirit prevailed - hardly a card needed except for a certain gentleman from the west coast who collected two of the three available.
Of course there were wrinkles (I've got some myself). The weather was a different season each day (every hour?) but Sunday topped up the tan nicely. The five minute changeover proved to be a little too ambitious. And there were some pies left over! If anyone would like to provide personal feedback (or order a pie) then please email secretary@scottishthistleshockey.org - John will be most appreciative.
Whilst mentioning John Lees I want to acknowledge the tremendous amount of work he put in. With Mike being indisposed a lot of knowledge had to be re-invented and John dragged this event over obstacles, under fences, through nettles and across the mud - and that was just to get to the pitches. Well worth it though and things should be a little easier to organise next year.
It was also great to have Mike at the pitches and at the dinner - an impiration to us all.
For 2025 there is a clash of dates with the European Championship with the Ladies and the Men's Junior teams going off to Nottingham. We've discussed and agreed that we're kind of settled on our weekend in August and with the pitches not being available in July Dundee 2025 will go ahead at the same weekend as usual even if some teams miss out by being involved elsewhere.
Team related photos attached to the individual reports under "Archive". More coming.
Photos from Paul Quinn available at his external site. https: //paulquinn.pixieset.com/dundeemastershockeytournament/ Pass number 6491
