Belper Women Regroup in the Vitality Conference Midlands Following a Tough Year

Rod Gilmour of The Hockey Paper speaks to Belper women as they regroup in the Vitality Conference Midlands following a tough year

How does a club deal with relegation after a winless season? In the case of Belper women, dropping to Conference Midlands from Division 1 North saw the club - whose women’s section is now over 100 years old - lose five senior players and being unable to replace the departures.

Yet, Belper coach Craig Keegan, the former Great Britain women’s assistant coach, is able to see the positives out of a side which now has a remarkable 10 players who are under-18 in their squad of 16. 

“It was the right thing for the club to be honest,” Keegan said of relegation. “If we had handpicked a league, we would have picked the conference as Division 1 was a stretch. Going through the season without a win, we weren't ready for the league.”

If the early stages of the Conference North is anything to go by, it will be a tight league this season. After losing their opening two matches to Birmingham University 2 and Beeston 2 (who fielded several 1s players from the previous week), Belper’s season is up and running after back-to-back wins over Loughborough Students 3 and Oxford University. 

“We’ve had a few tough seasons to be honest in terms of success and points on the board,” said Jo Lane, Belper’s 30-year-old right midfielder.  

“We knew we were going into a different league, to experience different teams and coming down we hope to experience more success with points on the board, which helps for team morale.”

Lane has been at Belper since she was six and formed part of the club’s glittering trophy cabinet at junior level. “When I was a junior we had real success,” she said. “Up until the age of 18 our year group had won 24 national titles. 

“It was a great group at junior level. We had the Anna Toman year group below and the Hollie Pearne-Webb year group above. There was lots of success at club level and a majority of us also went to the same school, The Ecclesbourne, as well as Derbyshire and Midlands hockey.”

A raft of juniors then moved on to university and it was, says Lane, a different era for the club. After she came back from university, Belper's team became adult orientated. That is until a junior production line started to come up to the senior team over the last few seasons under Keegan. 

Now it seems the club is marking a return to those junior days, given that well over half of the Conference Midlands’ side are still under-18.

“We have formed those friendships with them and we don’t have that junior and adult split as you might imagine,” admits Lane. “In a way they have grown up a lot in the last few seasons. 

“We can all chat and all get on and it’s about making sure that they feel included and, on the pitch, that they can speak to an adult. Everybody's equal and if they need to tell an adult to do something then they need to feel comfortable.” 

It’s the same on the social side, too. “After a few home games, the team has gone into Belper to one of the pubs. We try to make sure socials are junior friendly as well. They can tend to be alcohol focused and so we make sure we do things that everyone can do!”

Keegan is unable to explain the make-up of his current squad. “I don't know whether it's a sign of the times,” says the Tasmanian. “We don’t have enough over-18s and role models for the younger players.

“Having said that, I love working with the younger girls. They are really focused. They want to learn and be involved at this level and they are engaged 12 months a year with hockey and getting switched on to the season.

“The club also knows our level and supports what we want to do. It's tough on smallish clubs like ours and we are kind of isolated from the big recruitment zones.”

For now, Lane believes that Belper can challenge for success in the Conference as they aim for a hat-trick of wins this weekend.

The primary school teacher said: “It would be nice to think we would be near the top of the table by the end of the year. It’s such an unknown league for us and, judging by the first few weeks, there doesn’t seem to be clear stronger or weaker teams. It will be an interesting league.”

Saturday: Cannock v Belper, 12pm