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Important Update 09 April 2020

District hockey leagues declared null and void for season 2019/20

Districts, in collaboration with Scottish Hockey, have reached the decision to null and void all district leagues for the 2019/20 season with no promotion or relegation. This announcement does not include Scottish Hockey’s Premiership; National leagues; Regional Leagues; and Championship leagues.

It follows the decision in March to suspend all hockey activity in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in line with Government guidelines.

Given the timeframes available, and the amount of district matches that would be required to be played, it has been decided that the completion of all remaining district fixtures is not feasible.

The decision has been made with fairness in mind, and the districts with Scottish Hockey wanted to reach a collaborative decision together to ensure continuity across the districts.

Rhoda Howe – President, Women’s West District, Keith Joss – President, Men’s West District, Jamie Carnegie – President, Midlands District, Richard Gray – President, East District, Stephanie Grundy – President, North District

Scottish Hockey CEO David Sweetman said, “I would like to thank all the districts for a thorough and collaborative process to reach this very tough decision. This is an extremely challenging time and the districts working together in collaboration, with Scottish Hockey, have shown great unity in the drive to find a solution for district hockey. 

“I know there may be some disappointment amongst players; coaches; and clubs, but I also know we’ll work together to make sure district hockey bounces back strong once the sport restarts.”

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About Us

When the first meeting of the “newly formed” West District of the Scottish Women’s Hockey Association was held on 6th November 1903, there were 4 clubs and a committee of 3 members “for the carrying out of the matches of the District.” Nowadays we have 29 clubs and a committee of 15, when we add in all the different responsibilities. In 1903 all the clubs were from the Glasgow and Renfrewshire area, whereas now we cover the whole of the south-west of Scotland and boast of a club on Arran as well as a small club in Oban. They sent out their trials notices by post and expected a reply within a day, in those days when there were two or more postal deliveries a day. Maybe we are getting back to this almost instant communication with our mobile phones. But district teams in those days travelled by train to their matches, and since these were played on grass, there were more cancellations when the weather was against us.
 
In 1928, South-west split off from the West teams, although there were lots of matches between clubs from both areas and both districts played in the annual Inter-District competitions, as well as having healthy sister schoolgirls districts (Junior West was established in 1931), who were members of their own Scottish Schoolgirls Association. The various minute books show strong support for hockey across the whole area, with a seven division West League in the season before the National League was introduced. In 1990, the two districts amalgamated once again with the 32 West clubs and the 18 South-west clubs forming the new overall West District.  It looks from the names as if there were a lot more one team clubs, some of which have now got together to make training and coaching easier.
 
We celebrated our centenary on Saturday 8th November 2003 (with a committee meeting on 6th November, where we had champagne to celebrate the actual birthday) with a match played at Titwood and a dinner also in the Clydesdale Clubhouse. Our President that year, Anne Wotherspoon, is now the Scottish Hockey President.
 
And now we try to compete at all levels in Scotland and further afield, with players in Scottish teams at all ages from U16s to Over 60s, and try to co-ordinate hockey activity across the district for all age groups, in co-operation with the Men’s West District and Scottish Hockey who are now based here in the West at the Glasgow national Hockey Centre.

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