Blog 129: A lifetime of hockey.

Joyce McFarlane started playing hockey back in the sixties when she was 11. Back then, it was for her secondary school in Dundee. However, nowadays, she represents Scotland on the world stage. The O65’s team have made it to the top five in the World Cup three times in the past five years. It might not be everyone’s retirement plan to travel across the world, playing hockey, but that’s not the case for Joyce. She’s determined to show that age shouldn’t be a factor, whether it’s at international level or not.

After playing pretty much every sport, including netball, volleyball, and football, Joyce eventually decided to make hockey her main sporting focus. Moving down south and then back to Scotland, then abroad and then back to Scotland again meant she played for a lot of different teams, some successful, some less so. Five decades of muddy fields and playing in a time when women’s sports were not as supported as they are today eventually brought her back to Dundee and back to The Wanderers, where she plays with the second team. In 2022, Joyce tried out as the O65’s goalkeeper: “I tentatively volunteered since I thought my footballing skills would come in handy. The rest is history, as they say, as I’ve now represented Scotland at two World Cups.”

Now with The Dundee Wanderers, things are a bit different and the players are mostly more than a few decades younger, but that doesn’t stop Joyce: “As you get older, your enthusiasm for the game doesn’t wane. I play to help the second team as a striker, and playing with youngsters has its challenges, but it’s most heart-warming to see them develop into strong players breaking into the first team.” Joyce is seeing a new generation of players coming through. For her, it’s about building that experience and team effort to come together. It’s not about always winning (of course, that’s an added bonus) but, about creating something bigger than a group of people turning up to hit a ball around with pointy sticks.

When you’re a team as good as this, there’s a lot of cost in it. The team has travelled to New Zealand, Valencia, Cape Town, and even down to England a few times. These are self-funded trips, all from mainly retired women, no easy feat at all. They’ve all done a lot of fundraising to help offset the costs, but with the 25/26 season kicking off soon, where the ladies are hoping to make it to the World Cup they’ll need all the help they can get. You can follow them on Facebook for more information if you’d like to support the team, try out, or just stay up-to-date on their progress.

Ali MacFarlane, team captain, sums up what the team strives for and their hopes going forward for the upcoming season: “We, as a squad, are very aware of the importance of lifelong activity, and we all enjoy playing together against other women of a similar age – you meet people who have become friends – from all over the world. The competitiveness to strive to be champions doesn’t disappear, whatever your age. We are all very proud to represent our country and bring medals of any colour back to Scotland, but most importantly, we enjoy the journey.”