The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Four in frame for place among the hockey elite
It would have been easy to leave their equipment gathering dust when Covid-19 hit but Tayside’s top hockey talents are sticking at it ahead of a huge summer.
Former Dundee Wanderer Charlotte Watson, current star Emily Dark and ex-grove Menzieshill brothers Cameron and Jamie Golden are among Scotland’s brightest lights.
Undeterred by the coronavirus pandemic, they have been making rapid progress in recent times, through the national set-up and for Team GB, all the while broadening their horizons at club level
Forward Watson, now with Loughborough Students after a stint at Holcombe, is a pivotal player for the Scots, capped 67 times, and hoping to make her mark at this summer’s Olympics.
The 23-year-old Dundonian is in Mark Hager’s training squad ahead of the Tokyo Games and has aims of jetting off to Japan in July.
Britain’s women are looking to defend the gold they won at Rio 2016 and former St John’s pupil Watson will be striving to be a part of it.
She took part in a fourgame series against Ireland at Bisham Abbey last weekend and played her role in a successful warm-up for GB.
The games are coming thick and fast, too, with Pro League fixtures at Lee Valley, London, against Germany and the USA in May before Eurohockey Championship matches with Scotland in June.
Dark, too, should be involved in the fixtures against Spain, Ireland and defending champions and hosts Holland in Amsterdam.
Not only is the competition important continentally, the event will also be used as qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup.
Dark, still with Wanderers while she finishes her studies in physics at St Andrews University, looks set to become a real high-flier in more ways than one.
Not only is the 20-year-old defender soaring on the pitch, she is doing so as an RAF reservist as well, aiming to become the City of Edinburgh squadron’s first-ever female regiment gunner.
The defender, who won St Andrews’ Chancellor’s Award for Sporting Excellence last year, is already a key player for Scotland and making her name for Great Britain.
Along with the Golden brothers, she is in the GB Elite Development Programme (EDP) for 2021/22 and has been involved in coach Mark Hager’s top-team squad, picking up experience at the highest level.
With 23 Scotland caps under her belt it appears it won’t be long before she picks up her first for GB.
It feels like Cammy Golden has been around forever such was his impact at a young age but, incredibly, the Invergowrie lad is still only 21.
Starring as a goal-hungry striker for UHC Hamburg, where former Grove teammate Gavin Byers is a player-coach, Golden is a crucial component of the senior Scotland team and GB U23s.
An EDP member, formerly of top Dutch team Klein Zwitserland, he’ll head into the summer looking to add to a successful British youth team career.
Golden was central to the GB U21s Sultan of Johor Cup win in Malaysia in 2018 and won the FIH MVP (Most Valuable Player) Award at the Hockey Series Open in Lousada, Portugal, 2018, and the Series Finals in Le Touquet Plage, France, 2019.
Injuries have struck him down at times but he appears determined not to let it hamper his progress as he gets set for the Eurohockey Championships II in Poland with Scotland in August.
With an eye on the immediate future, Golden and Hamburg this season made the Bundesliga playoffs while, on the personal front, the youngster hopes to pick up his honours in sport and exercise science from Abertay University this summer.
At 19, Jamie is the youngest of the pack and has it all ahead of him and is already some way down the path of following in his big brother’s footsteps.
That said, the Goldens are a huge hockey family, with Cammy already following the lead of dad Paul in many ways.
Jamie, also a part of the EDP and a 2019 Sultan of Johor Cup winner, is starring for English Premier League champions Surbiton after leaving Grove.
He will be alongside his big brother in Gniezno, Poland, this summer looking to pick up his first senior outdoor cap for Scotland.
The tall midfielder made his Blue Sticks indoor bow last year and has worked his way through every youth level as well as making his mark for Team GB.
A senior cap beckons and he’ll be hoping to defend his Scottish Hockey U/19 Player of the Year crown from 2019 with no awards having been handed out for 2020.