Scottish Thistles ladies indoor team

One thing many hockey players have been missing over the course of the pandemic has been the opportunity to play indoor hockey. So, when the idea was floated to put together a team of ‘older’ players to compete in domestic leagues, women of a certain age (over 35 and up) jumped at the chance.

Team Captain Vanesa Sabala explains: “I love playing indoor but my district hadn’t resumed the indoor league, and Scottish Masters Hockey haven’t entered teams in to international competition. So I decided to ask around and see if it was possible to enter a team for women aged 35 and up into Scottish Hockey’s domestic league.”

 

 

Scottish Hockey agreed, and Scottish Thistles kindly agreed to be the ‘parent’ club, which left Vanesa to round up a team, a sponsor and some kit in the space of just two weeks.

“It was a bit of a scramble but I’m happy we had huge interest from players and Allied Mobility stepped up as sponsor,” added Vanesa.

The Thistles side has a pool of 18 players aged between 35-55 and hailing from Aberdeen to East Kilbride, Glasgow to Helensburgh and everywhere in between.

Vanesa concludes: “I’m so excited that we managed to put a team together in such a short time. A lot of players love indoor but didn’t have the opportunity to play with their current club. It is the first time that a Masters team has entered the competition and we hope we can do us proud and show that we still can play in spite of the aches and pains.”

Allied Mobility said: “We had recently sponsored Glasgow High Kelvinside and are delighted to push this sponsorship a bit further to help Scottish Thistles Masters Hockey Club compete in the Scottish Women's National Indoor League. We hope the team flick, scoop and shoot their way to success.”