Kelso Hockey Club's Moira Anderson takes time out of her busy schedule to tell us about her adventures with the Scotland Masters O65s and Thistles squads.....

"Getting selected for the Scottish Masters Over 65s hockey team is getting harder every year, but I’m so very proud and pleased to be in the squad for the coming 2025 season. Seven strong players moved up from last year’s very successful O60s squad to play for the O65s age group this year. Over 30 players in total attended the trials in March/April, all hoping to make the cut into the squad. I’m so pleased to be one of the lucky ones to get selected. The squad is made up of two goalkeepers and sixteen outfield players, led by coach, Pip Graham, who is working hard with the squad and pleased with the progress so far.

I will represent Scotland at four events during this season.

The first event has already taken place. We travelled to Durham in May and played competitive games against The North of England. The results were encouraging! We were narrowly beaten on Saturday 2-1 and achieved a well earned 1-1 draw on the Sunday after a much improved team performance.

Training sessions continue over various weekend as the team prepare to travel to Swansea, Wales in June to take part in the Home Nations tournament. First up is our game against Wales on the Friday, follwed by England on the Saturday. As Ireland cannot field an Over 65s team, we will play England LX 70’s team on the Sunday.

In July, I will travel with the Scottish Masters squad to Southgate, England to take part in the Summer Nations Tournament. The team played in this event last year and came home with a runners up medal so we are hoping to go one better this year and win gold!

This event will be used as preparations for the European Championships to be held in Nottingham August. The draft schedules shows we are drawn with Belgium, England, Netherlands and Wales. This is the final tournament for the Scottish squad. Hopefully we will be in a medal position and end on a high.

I also play competitive hockey for Scottish Thistles. Most of the Masters O65s squad are also part of the Thistles, therefore this adds some quality practice sessions. We have five competitive events in total and these are mixed in between some of the Masters events. The first event was a 7s tournament held in Wellingborough, England in April and we were very pleased to finish as runners up.

Two Thistles teams, the O60s and O65s, travelled to Namur, Belgium in April to play in a tournament organised by the Belgium Panthers. Games were very competitive 10 teams taking part. We played well but were not in medal position, unlike the O60s team who were overall winners in their section!

On Saturday, the Thistles played in Loch Lomond's Veteran Festival for O35s at the Hermitage Academy, Helensburgh. It’s always a good tournament, competitive and lots of fun.

We have two Thistles' teams playing in the International Grand Masters Hockey Festival in Nottingham from 29 June- 6 July. We will play against the USA, Dutch, Alliance, and three LX England teams. Having a game every day for six days will be a great test of fitness for the players but a fantastic experience.

To end the season, two Thistles teams have been entered into the September Fest held in Cambridge, England. We hope to beat last year's effort where we were runners up and win gold this year!

My itinerary:-

Thistles 12/13 April - Wellingborough
Thistles 25/27 April - Belgium
Masters 10/11 May - Durham
Thistles 7 June Sat - Helensburgh
Masters 13-15 June - Swansea
Thistles 29 June-6 July - Nottingham
Masters 11-13 July - Southgate
Masters 8-17 Aug. - Nottingham
Thistles 23-25 Sept - Cambridge

A very busy year of amazing hockey."

Thank you, Mo, for sharing your adventures with us and we look forward to hearing how you get on. Good luck!