There’s always plenty to chat about over Sunday lunch in Trevor Done’s household during the hockey season. 

Done is coach of Gloucester City Ladies 1st XI, a team that includes both his wife Emma and 17-year-old daughter Poppy.

“Yes, we do talk about hockey,” said 54-year-old Done, who is in his fourth season as coach.

And there’s been plenty of positives to talk about in recent times because Gloucester are riding high in Division 1 North of the National League.

That’s some achievement and something of which Done is very proud, all the more so because he has been with the club for some four decades.

It hasn’t always been hockey for the one-time Saintbridge School pupil, however.

He grew up in Gloucester and in his early days played football.

“I was football mad as a very young child. I played for Hillview, a Hucclecote-based team,” he said.

“I supported Chelsea but once I went to Saintbridge I fell into hockey.”

That may seem surprising because he chose Saintbridge in preference to Sir Thomas Rich’s because they played football.

Not that Done sees it that way. 

“Saintbridge was very good for hockey and there are a lot of similarities between hockey and football,” he explained.

“Games are 11-a-side, there are goals at each end, matches are played on similar sized pitches, the principles of both are similar.”

He also made some very good friends at school through hockey.

“We had a good friendship group,” he continued. “Jon Roberts, Simon Thompson, Dave Stokes; we still occasionally play Masters hockey together.”

In those early days, Done was an attacking midfielder and he was also captain for most of his time at school.

He played and captained the 1st XI by which time he had already linked up with Gloucester.

“A bunch of us joined when we were 14 or 15 and they started a youth team,” he said.

“I think there may have been one before but we were certainly one of the first teams.”

Done made his debut for the club’s first team as a 17-year-old and he continued: “I remember some of the guys who helped me transition into the team, the likes of Steve Harrington and Steve Elway. 

“We were a regional premier-level club back then.”

And they soon went higher.

“We played in the National League for five seasons in the late 1990s,” said Done, who lives in Norton.

“We brought through some good players, they were good guys.

“The likes of Mark Pearn and Rob Todd both went on to play for Great Britain.

“We were in the second tier of the National League and played against Teddington, Surbiton and Richmond.

“It was brilliant to play at that level, a real privilege. We knew we were a mid-table team at best, but we competed. 

“The best thing was actually getting promoted to the National League after we won the Western League.

“We went into the play-offs which were at Olton in Solihull and played over two days. We drew with Edgbaston and beat Sheffield and Bream, a team from near Weston.

“The whole club were supporting us, getting into the National League was a big deal.”

It certainly was, and Done was a major part of that success, even though he was playing in a different position from his younger days.

“I played most of my career as a centre-back/sweeper or in centre-midfield,” he said.

“I think I turned into a better player when I realised I didn’t need to run with the ball all the time.

“I realised that the best thing I could do was give the ball to someone who was younger, fitter and better!”

Done played a bit for the club’s 2nds before hanging up his stick six years ago.

He still plays Masters hockey – he’s played for England Masters – but coaching is very much his focus these days and it’s something that has always interested him.

“Hockey is not that complicated, you have to keep it simple,” said Done, who works in the financial sector.

“I’ve always helped out on the coaching side since my early 20s.

“I was player/coach of the 1st XI for a while, which wasn’t the smartest thing to do.

“I’d tell players they were doing something wrong and then do the same thing myself!”

Coaching was something he could obviously do, though, although coaching the ladies’ flagship team wasn’t really on his radar.

“It was something I fell into, it was circumstance,” said Done, who had coached the ladies for a couple of seasons when he was younger.

“I’d been coaching the ladies’ 2nds when our head coach Gary Tredgett, who did a great job, decided to move on.

“My oldest daughter Holly was just about to get into the 1st XI and it just seemed right.”

Holly is now captain of Exeter University who play in National 1 South – she’s a second-year student – so hockey is a very big part of the Done family life.

So does Done enjoy coaching his family?

“I’d coached Emma before and she said I would be a good coach for the team,” said Done, before adding with a laugh, “In every other circumstance I’m not listened to, but I am occasionally in hockey!”

Done’s youngest daughter, five-year-old Lola, is already showing an interest in picking up a stick, so she may well play in the same team as her sisters one day.

Her mum has been a mainstay of the club’s 1st XI for many years and these days is enjoying playing alongside Poppy in midfield.

The team are winning games and Done continued: “The group is fantastic, really good. I’m enjoying coaching, I enjoy giving something back.

“I want them to have the same love of the sport that I have. I want them to pick up a stick as a teenager and still want to pick up a stick when they’re 50.”

So how high can Gloucester Ladies go?

“I want us to create a reputation that makes people want to join us, I think we’re getting there,” Done said. 

“We’re doing very well in the National League, long-term I want us to be sustainable at this level.”