The theme of the 2025 International Women’s Day is Accelerate Action. Jean Fitch from Bedford Hockey Club has spent the last 30 years involved in the club and was integral to the launch of the successful walking hockey sessions while playing in goal and fundraising for the club. We invited her to share her love of hockey and the positive changes that have been made at the club and the sport.
Sport and music were my main passions growing up, every spare moment taken up with one or other. Being born in the 60s, however, there wasn’t the same diverse range of sports available to girls and women, there being a strong gender bias regarding what was ‘acceptable’, something I struggled with, being a quintessential tomboy.
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I would play cricket in the back garden with my brother for hours on end, but there were no clubs in my area that recognised that as a sport for girls, a situation that has thankfully changed, and enabled me to take it up in adulthood, and to continue playing to this day.
My first taste of hockey was when, aged 13, we relocated and it, along with netball and cross country, were the winter sport options for girls at the comprehensive school I moved to, and I loved it, transferring the hand-eye coordination skills I had developed through my cricket to this newfound sport, and seeing me selected for the school team, as a left back.
It was a very different game then from the one we play today – the pitch was the same muddy field used for boy’s rugby and football (sports that weren’t on offer to girls in schools back then). Play was started with a bully (three taps between the ground and stick); I quickly learnt the off-side rule; woe betide anyone who lifted the ball off the ground, and goal keepers were lucky if they had a pair of cricket pads and leather gloves (no helmet)…
Another highlight of my week is attending the aforementioned Walking Hockey, which takes place twice a week from September to May. Recognition for initiating this goes to our Ladies’ Club Captain, Kate Costin, who arranged a taster session during a club tournament six years ago. This group is so much more than just the hockey, one player telling me it has been a lifeline for her.
Walking Hockey has removed many of the boundaries preventing sectors of the community from participating in the sport of hockey. It is gender inclusive and the format of the game makes it highly accessible, due to its slower pace and lower impact, enabling individuals with all nature of illnesses and disabilities to not only participate in exercise, but to do so in an enjoyable, and competitive arena.
Since its introduction, the group has had members across the age ranges use this format to try hockey for the first time, others have returned to the sport after a significant period of time away, whilst some, who were faced with giving up playing the sport due to illness, injury or fitness levels, have discovered a form of the game that enables them to continue participation.
Many of the ‘walkers’ have progressed on to playing mainstream hockey for the club, including Steph Daniels, now 78, who back in the day was taught and coached by, and played alongside, Val Robinson. Twice-weekly Walking Hockey is still part of Steph’s calendar, simply for its joy and camaraderie, even though she has also reached the dizzy heights of attending training with the England Women’s Over 70s squad for the past couple of seasons.
There has been a ripple effect from when we were the only club in the local area offering this format of the game, and several matches and tournaments have already taken place, with others in the pipeline. A growing number of clubs are coming on-board, seven of us in the area now being connected through a WhatsApp group.
The introduction of Walking Hockey is just one of the changes I have witnessed over my 30-year involvement with the club. Most notable, is the growth in membership, in particular of female participation, swelling from four women’s teams in 1994, to seven today, with talk of the possibility of creating an eighth…
READ MORE at source: https://www.englandhockey.co.uk/media/news/international-women-s-day-jean-fitch-s-lifelong-love-of-hockey
#walkinghockey #walkingsports #walkingsport
