Cheltenham Civil Service Ladies Hockey Club have a mission in 2018.

They are, of course, passionate about all things hockey and have pledged to increase the popularity of their club and the sport in general this year.

“The club has been going since… It’s a long-time. The club is historic,” said Claire, who has been the club’s Captain for five years.

The club have values that are suited to modern lifestyles despite their long life-span though.

“We’re a friendly club,” said Claire.

“We’ve got one 11 a-side team, but there are lots of mums who can’t commit to playing hockey once a week. We have friendly fixtures on a Wednesday which are quick, fun games and have been successful so far.”

Plenty of people believe that hockey is a great sport.

Claire is definitely one of these people.

“For me, it’s fitness without having to go to the gym,” she said.

“You don’t have to push yourself, and everyone is running around which is encouraging. The club is full of like-minded people who all enjoy the sport.

“It’s really fun. You can just go for a quick game – it’s something you can drop in and out of.

“I also love being outdoors and getting some fresh air.”

If that doesn’t give you a reason to take up hockey, then it might be that nothing will.

So, how did Claire get into hockey?

“I started playing when I joined secondary school at the age of 11 and really loved it,” she said.

“We weren't offered much hockey at primary school, so it was a nice change. I'd begun to get bored of netball – you're not able to run around the court as much as I always wanted to.

“I played throughout the seven years of senior school and sixth form for the school team. It was great to play alongside my friends and we did have some really good successes; we were the HSBC County Champions back in 2005!'

“I didn’t play any hockey at university, so going back to hockey, finding such a nice team and working my way up with them has been a big highlight of my time with the club.

“The team are so inclusive. We try to get every member involved as much as possible so it’s not the same people doing everything all the time.

“We base it around people’s jobs. If someone is an event’s organiser, we’ll get them to help out with organising events.”

Claire is ready for tackling this year’s goal – expanding the team – head on.

“We’d like to grow the club in a number of different ways,” she said.

“Hockey had a lot of success in the Rio Olympics in 2016. The girl’s hockey team won gold, which got a lot of coverage, so hockey’s popularity rose.”

“We’d like to ride on the wave of success. Loads of people came to the open day we held a while ago, which meant we got a handful of new players which is really positive.”

If the club’s passion for hockey can remain as strong as this, they’ll be going for gold in no time.