FEATURE: Hockey in Buxton has never had it so good

The club, which has four senior men’s teams and multiple juniors sides, recently revitalised it’s women’s section.

The ‘Back to Hockey’ scheme played its part in getting more players into the sport and especially so at Buxton with the club putting out a women’s team for the first time in 15 years.

Sarah Ingleby, press secretary and player, says the women’s section is nice combination of women wanting to rediscover their love of the game and hungry talented youngsters.

“A lot of the mums who watch their kids playing have been stuck on the sidelines and we all said we wished we could be playing again,” Sarah told the Advertiser.

“The ‘This Girl Can’ campaign made us think why not.

“We might not be as fit we once were, but we thought we’d give it a go.

“We talked to people at the club and they thought it would be a really good thing to do.

“We pushed the Back to Hockey’ initiative through social media, drove it and did really well.

“Out of that we now a good team and it’s grown to a really strong section of the club.

“We’re giving the men a run for their money!

“We have a wide range of ages because of the girls coming through the junior section but they had nowhere to go after 14.

“We wanted to cater for everybody and it’s definitely going in the right direction.

“And it’s giving girls in Buxton another option sport-wise.

“There isn’t a huge amount for teenagers to do so anything that’s on offer is a good thing.”

“We’ve entered a team this year so we’re doing okay.”

The club is also basking in the joy of a £10,000 grant from Sport England.

Sarah said: “We’ve also now got a fourth men’s team so as part of that we were able to put forward a bid for funding.

“The £10,000 that was awarded to us has helped fund kits and coaching, so it’s really given the club a big boost to take things forward.

“We can’t just think that we’ve got that money in the bank though just in case.

“But at the end of the day, the club was doing okay before it.

“We weren’t going broke but it helps obviously and has been a good boost to the coffers.

“The club’s going from strength to strength.

“If you look at us from where we are now from five years ago, we’ve grown massively.

“We’re holding our own and we’re doing well.”