Scotland: 1975 Scotland Squad at the IFWHA Conference and Tournament

It was a frightening however thrilling expertise to captain the Scottish Squad within the first ever IFWHA World Match in 1975. The earlier choice course of, very a lot outdated, was modified primarily because of the monumental efforts of Marie Weir, the Scottish Ladies’s coach. The squad comprised seven senior gamers, and the remaining eight gamers with a mean of 4 caps every, had little or no expertise of worldwide hockey. A lot needed to be addressed.

Your complete squad labored tirelessly to come back collectively as one, and with household, buddies and lots of members of the Scottish hockey neighborhood raised hundreds of kilos to finance coaching journeys to Europe, in an effort to raised put together the squad to face the continental model of play and umpiring.

Though the squad was introduced on the finish of March, we had a relaxation on the finish of the season, earlier than embarking on a coaching weekend in Holland in April, and the same enterprise to Germany in June. We have been making ready to play seven worldwide matches in ten days.

The emphasis on health, stamina, enchancment in particular person technical capacity, match play, competing towards totally different kinds of play all needed to be improved. We needed to mix as one, each on and off the pitch. In direction of July and August, we performed towards males, who have been a lot stronger and sooner, and in addition performed a special model of hockey. In August, we had just a few days collectively in Craigflower, a boys’ prep faculty in Fife, the place we labored on consolidating all facets of our preparation.

We had executed our greatest in readiness to carry out on the most important stage of our lives – to play in entrance of dwelling help in Edinburgh.

All self-funded, while holding down full time jobs!

Squad members: Barbara Bell, Elan Borrowman, Margaret Brown, Marietta Craigie, Isobel Flint, Kay Francis, Elaine Graham, Kathleen Haldane, Gillian McIntyre, Anne MacLeod, Susan MacVicar, Rae Nicholson (captain), Jinty Stewart, Anne Wilson. Supervisor – Jennifer Cochrane

There isn’t a better sporting honour than representing Scotland. How proud I used to be as captain and flag bearer, to steer out our Scottish Ladies’s Hockey Group on the Opening Ceremony of the IFWHA match at Meadowbank Stadium in August 1975. This was the primary ever ladies’s World Hockey Match to be performed in Scotland, and we had the privilege of enjoying within the opening match towards Canada.

All of our laborious work and coaching stood us in good stead as we realised our potential and recorded a superb win, 5-0. Over the subsequent ten days we had highs and lows, as, regrettably, we didn’t qualify to play within the part competing for prime honours. After successful our preliminary part, we misplaced to Argentina by one penalty objective in a cross over match. A tough capsule to swallow. We have been seeded tenth, and our last inserting was ninth. When it actually mattered, as a workforce, we weren’t sturdy sufficient.

Nonetheless, the expertise of being a part of such a properly organised occasion was wonderful and friendships have been made that final to today.

We totally loved the social aspect of the occasion, and I hope the younger gamers of right this moment have the chance to expertise what the 1975 squad did.

Rae Nicholson, Scottish Captain