Gloucester City Women Petition To Help Hockey Stay At Oxstalls Sports Park

Rod Gilmour of The Hockey Paper speaks to Gloucester City women on team transitioning, facility problems and reaching new heights in Division One 

At the end of September, Gloucester City Hockey Club were hit hard by the news that their home venue was closing just two weeks into the season.

The venue operator, which owned the Oxstalls Sports Park venue where the club play home matches, gave Gloucester council less than 24 hours notice that it would be walking away with immediate effect after ending its contract.

The club felt the full impact, with home matches postponed and a petition set up to reopen the multi-sport facility. To date nearly 7,000 have signed the petition, with hockey one of the lucky sports to be given the green light to return by the local council, albeit with limited facilities.

“It’s been a rocky few weeks," says Emily Rogers, Gloucester City women’s centre forward and club captain.

The women’s 1s, who are currently in Division One North and one rung below the Vitality Women’s Premier Division, were playing away that weekend and eked out a 1-0 victory at Ben Rhydding before playing at ‘home’ at nearby Wycliffe College. 

They won 5-3 against Olton & West Warwickshire and are now sitting in second place behind leaders Buckingham after five matches.

Rogers joined the club 12 years ago just as Gloucester City gained National League status for the first time. In that time, the women have only had one coach, Gary Tredgett, who left after around 15 years at the helm at the end of the 2021/22 season.

“It was a proper end of an era,” admits Rogers. “He got us to perform at a very high level for a very long time.”

The club appointed from within and turned to Trevor Done who, says Rogers, is “invested at every aspect of the club”, particularly with the juniors where he was once club captain.

“We wanted to focus on a long term solution rather than fix short term with someone who had more national league experience," she adds.

Last year, the club nurtured eight under-18s into the women's 1s, with several still current squad members, as Gloucester City aimed to work in harmony with the 1s and 2s. Gone was the performance-led focus which had maintained the club as a top-level team and in came a club integration policy.

Last year, Done and Co set about a consolidation season to see if the team could play at Divison One level - and stay in the league. After a promising start before the winter break, the team did maintain its status and finished eighth of 10 teams.

Rogers, who has been captain of the women’s 1s several times over her decade and more with the club, took the armband for one season only last year during the team’s transitioning.

Chloe O’Donoghue, who has come through the junior system, is the new captain with Rogers admitting that she is one of the best defenders in the league.

Rogers, who has three small children and works for a marketing agency, says that this season has been a thoroughly enjoyable one with the team riding high following their opening weekend slip up to Leicester City.

“This year is probably the most successful team I have played in so far and also the most fun,” says the 32-year-old. “We are really together as a unit and it’s odd to be enjoying it at this end of my career!

“To be sitting at the top of a pretty competitive league is testament to what’s been going on behind closed doors.”

With the league having a week off this weekend, focus will turn to a November home date against league leaders Buckingham. 

“We beat Bowdon at our place last year before they ran away with the league and we get a pretty decent atmosphere when we want to,” says Rogers. “I’m hoping it will be exactly the same sort of experience.”

She is hopeful too that the council can rectify their existing home at Oxstalls Sports Park and the team can focus on the league.

“It’s still not all decided and it was quite a thing to deal with,” adds Rogers. “There shouldn’t be any problem and the council are working on what it means long term.”