When did you start playing Hockey?

The first hockey I played was when I was around seven or eight but that was indoor as my primary school didn’t have any other facilities at that point. It wasn’t until I reached age 10 that I started playing outdoor hockey and would be age 12 at least before I actually understood what was going on in an eleven-a-side full pitch match. Bit slow to catch on but haven’t looked back since

Why did you choose hockey as your sport – what is it that attracts you about the game?

In all honesty, hockey began as a very sociable thing for me. I spent several years more focused on tennis, thinking I was going to win Wimbledon one day – needless to say, that never happened – and it wasn’t until I got a tennis injury that I turned to hockey more seriously. Having said that, I soon found that I preferred hockey for one simple reason: it’s a team-sport through and through and really does require you to communicate and work together in all aspects of the game. It’s also a very skillful and tactical game which requires lots of time and dedication in order to produce a good team performance- there’s nothing quite like walking off the hockey pitch feeling both physically and mentally drained but knowing you did your bit for the team.

What is your favourite personal sporting memory?

I know it’s a very small country, and be don’t tend to win a lot, but I don’t think anything will beat the first time I represented Scotland. It was an U16 fixture against Ireland in Dublin and I only really remember the national anthems, taking a ball to the eye and using proper ice-baths for the first time (in Scotland we just use wheelie bins...)

 

How did you feel before your first university game and how did the game go?

So unbelievably nervous. It was my second week in Cambridge and I’d been to three or four training sessions before being asked to fill in for the blues because someone was injured. It’s probably just as well the coach didn’t tell me he was planning on starting me, and at full back, otherwise the nerves might have got the better of me. We were playing against Colchester 2nd XI who had a couple of decent forwards so the match was a tricky one and, in many ways, the perfect way to begin my Blues career: nothing like being thrown in at the deep end!

Who is the best player you have played with?

Being a defender, I used to hate training against a forward called Amy Brodie in the Scottish squads – she was impossible to read and I have never given away so many fouls. She’s gone on to various Scottish and GB representation so I don’t feel too bad...

 

What is the dressing room like before a game?

 

Pretty chilled I think. We tend to have our pre-match talk well in advance, then are fairly relaxed getting ready in the changing rooms before really focusing in during the warm up.

 

What motivates you to get out of bed every morning and go to training?

 

Again, it’s all about the team. You really feel like you’re letting everybody else down if you don’t turn up to training or aren’t prepared to put in 100% when you get there. Cambridge isn’t really about doing things half-heartedly and nowhere is this more true than on the sports field. Its also a very good way to escape all the other stresses in Cambridge and spend those hours only focused on the next pass or tackle. I think I might go a little bit insane if I were to stop playing hockey.

 

Will you beat The Other Place?

 

Yes. GDBO.