When Norwich Dragons player Bridget Le Good got involved in a seated exercise session for ‘mature ladies’ she did not expect to discover an enthusiastic group of over 80s who were keen to know all about hockey and GBs’ chances in the Olympics.

“The ladies asked me where I had acquired my fitness knowledge. I was pleased to explain much of it was derived from England Hockey’s Single System. I explained that some of the stretch exercises they had been doing were the very same that the GB team uses in their warm up, without the chairs!” said Bridget.

“My new squad, the Eager Cedars Over 80s, asked me to bring some hockey sticks to the next session.  They were amazed at the modern sticks, having played with the long English heads made of ash more than 70 years ago. We soon got into push passes – open face and reverse, stick skills, wide base receives, and block tackles. Our highlight was low and high penalty flicks.  My top scorer is 88, and was wielding a hockey stick for the first time.

So now my ladies are ready with their flags. They are 100 per cent behind GB; they’ve each picked a favourite player, and they’ll be watching out for 50 metre aerials, lateral moves across the pitch, sprints into the attacking circle from every angle and net-busting spectacular goals.  They’re sure GB will be the golden girls.”