Gold medallists back at St Albans Hockey Club for celebrations

It was in 1898 that the Herts County Hockey Club played their first ever fixture, a 5-0 win over Finchley at Clarence Park.

One year later, a sub-committee of the club was established to help form a Herts County Hockey Association and a further year after that, in November 1900, the club changed its name to St Albans.

The Tangerines move to their current base at Oaklands College in 2013 and it is there over the weekend that the much-expanded club will celebrate 125 years of hockey.

Both the male and female first teams have home games on Saturday, starting at 3pm and 1pm respectively, while there will also be a perpetual anniversary game on Sunday.

This will be a seven-hour long game in which anyone can take part for as long as they like.

There will be rolling substitutes, rolling goalies and rolling umpires with the game starting at 10am and finishing at 5pm.

Hannah MacLeod showed off her gold medal in 2016. Picture: CHRIS HOBSON PHOTOGRAPHY (Image: Chris Hobson Photography)

Among the faces frequenting the club over the two days will be four of St Albans' most illustrious international alumni.

Andy Halliday managed the England and Great Britain men's teams from 2006 to 2021 and is an ambassador for the Hockey4Heroes and Access Sport charities.

John Hurst was GB goalkeeper for 21 years from 1977, recording 100 international appearances.

Since 1989, he has been a goalkeeping coach for Team GB at six Olympics and Team England at five Commonwealth Games.

Hannah Macleod played for England & Great Britain, winning more than 150 international caps as well as being part of the gold medal winning squad at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Ellie Watton was also part of that Rio team and played for England and GB from 2013 to 2018.