Jaime Hindle of Whitchurch Hockey Club in Cardiff says it's a sport for all - the fastest growing in Welsh schools today.

"Hockey...that's a girl's game!"

All too often when I was growing up - playing football, cricket, rugby and hockey my peers told me hockey was a girl's game. For some unknown reason the boys at junior school seem to associate hockey with girls - why was that?

I was always the first to get "stuck-in" at football and rugby (sliding tackles were my speciality), end up coming home with mudded trousers, from a particularly involved lunchtime kick about.

Yeah alright, the girls did play more hockey in school than the boys and it was mainly a "rugby" school, but as the boys got older and became more involved with club hockey, the better and more competitive the senior boys hockey team became - culminating in county finals and alternate foreign tours at the end of the year - rugby one year and hockey the next.

My point is - the girls in school may well play hockey traditionally; but that does not mean it does not require a good hockey player to be strong, quick, flexible and intelligent - male or female.

In fact hockey is the fastest growing sport in Welsh schools today, outstripping the mainstays of football and rugby.

The wider public don't see much hockey - it is only ever on TV when the Olympics come around. Then they are amazed how quick, skilful and physically fit hockey players are.

Let's face it - you have 22 players on the pitch, armed with metre long carbon fibre reinforced weapons (sticks) all trying the hit a solid plastic ball (some as hard as 100mph) - there is nothing girly about that!

Make your own mind up - come and see the cream of Welsh men's club hockey play.

Whitchurch is the only Welsh men's team in the English Hockey League (EHL), which gets underway on September 26th.

The first home game will be played at the Welsh Institute of Sport (WIS) at Sophia Gardens on Sunday October 3rd at 2pm and every alternate Sunday after that.

Come and see what you're missing!

Jaime Hindle - playing committee chair - Whitchurch HC