Orkney Ladies to kick off Hockey Island Games in Jersey

Orkney’s hockey players are preparing to take part in the inaugural match of the 2015 bi-annual Hockey Island Games, which is due to kick-off this evening in Jersey. The Orkney contingent, consisting of the Orkney Senior Ladies Hockey team as well as, for the first time, five men who will form a Barbarians team travelled to Jersey on Thursday for the competition, which runs until Sunday.

In what will be a difficult opening match for the Orkney Ladies, they face defending champions, Isle of Man in the opening match of the tournament. Two more matches on Saturday, against Jersey and Guernsey, will determine which of the play-off matches Orkney will contest for the final placings on Sunday. Orkney will be hoping to go one better than 2013 where they finished as runners-up and are keen to take a final step up, having finished a position higher on each occasion.

In what will be an action packed weekend of hockey, over 120 players from Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man and Orkney will be participating in the three-day tournament with the finals, officiated by international umpires, taking place on Sunday afternoon.

The Barbarian side, featuring Orkney’s Fraser Anderson, Morgan Reid, Jack Rendall, James Iredale, and Kenneth McIlory, will replace Bermuda who have decided not to travel this year.

For the ladies, training has been geared towards this tournament since the inter-county in Shetland and the squad includes five girls who played in this year’s junior inter-county team. The Orkney squad in Jersey are: Lynn Cursiter, Charlotte Thomson, Karen Brough, Donna Wilson, Lauren Gilmour, Aimee Drever, Lisa Groundwater, Hannah Cromarty, Jennie Pickles, Inga Kemp, Claire Irvine, Joanne Pottinger, Anna Tait, Ruth Clark, Kayla Smith, Paula Bonner, Isla Tait, and Bethin MacDonald.

You can keep up-to-date with the results on the Orkney Hockey Facebook page.