Team look forward to festival marking 90th year
Plans are in place to mark a significant milestone in the history of a Perthshire sports club.
Blairgowrie ladies hockey team was founded in 1931.
And, with current league matches on the back burner as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, thoughts are already turning to 2021 and acknowledging the club’s 90th anniversary.
A festival-type event and special dinner are in the process of being formulated, with sporting nostalgia very much the order of the day.
A spokesperson for the team said: “The Blairgowrie ladies will host a hockey festival in the town next year.
“Players past and present will be invited to join a celebratory evening followed by a day of hockey.
“This will include kids’skills coaching and fun games, as well as contests for the adults and matches using old hockey rules.
“Finally, the club will host a dinner where those attending can share their hockey experiences with players young and old.
“The plans for the weekend will be announced later this year and the club will be inviting all players past and present, as well as others associated with the club through the years, to come along.”
The club was initially based at Davie Park in Rattray for around 20 years.
In the 1950s, matches and training sessions were moved to the
Blairgowrie High School playing fields before the club moved its activities to the JJ Coupar Recreation Ground in 1967.
Some training still takes place at the venue off the east Perthshire town’s Coupar Angus Road, although sessions normally take place on the artificial surface at Blairgowrie Community Campus.
Now part of the Midlands hockey league set-up, the club plays competitive matches on the full-size Astroturf pitch at North Inch Community Campus in Perth as there is no suitable alternative in Blairgowrie.
The spokesperson continued: “Next year’s celebrations will bring together players, supporters and relations from the club’s 90-year history.
“These will include men and women from the club’s early years – there was a men’s team until 1971 – as well as the current players, many of whom are still at school.”
More details will be published on the Blairgowrie Hockey Club Facebook page.