The girls v Llandovery

This month’s Throwback Thursday post takes us back to the beginning of girls' hockey at Christ College. Taken in 1987 on the steps at Llandovery College on the day of their first match against the 'old foe', the photograph above is the very first Christ College Girls 1st Hockey XI. 

As a result of research undertaken with Llandovery College for the programme that celebrated the first "Brecon" match on their new astro just before the half-term break, we have pulled together some details that reveal the girls' story. It's not the first time we've posted a celebration of the Girls Hockey XI but their own Llandovery history has never before been told. 

While the Cricket XI first played against Llandovery in 1865, and the Rugby Football XV can claim their first Llandovery match in 1879, both first teams have had periods when no matches were played. In case you are wondering, the suspension of the XV fixture (2013-2020) wasn’t the only period when there was no rugby match: as well as during the war years, there was no match in 1952, 1953 and 1954. A Boys Hockey XI match against their rugby rivals was planned in 1923 but it never took place. Unbelieveable but true, is that the Boys Hockey XI didn't play against a Llandovery side until March 1997. 

The Girls Hockey XI, on the other hand, can not only claim a continuous first team fixture since 1987 with only the Covid years stopping all fixtures for two seasons, they can also claim that their run of fixtures pre-dates the equivalent boys’ fixture by more than a decade. 

24 November 1987
Despite their inexperience, especially compared with a seasoned Llandovery team, the girls’ first match against Llandovery was fought with sufficient determination to give the opposition some tough competition. Encouraged rather than deflated by what was only a 6-0 loss, they were motivated for further battle encounters by the Christ College coach, Alison Hembrow, and the Llandovery coach, Jackie Kendrick. The game left both teams eagerly anticipating the next match. 

The second match (again played Away on grass) resulted in the first ever goal scored by a Brecon player, Sarah Jones (de Winton 1988-90) in a match that finished in a 4-1 defeat. The first win against Llandovery wasn’t until the 1990/91 season - a 1-0 Away win with Lucy Evans (de Winton 1989-91) on the scoresheet. But the girls’ undimmed enthusiasm was a very early indicator that girls’ hockey was going to be a significant and important part of school sport.

With small numbers of girls in the school at the time, for the earliest matches many of the girls were first-time players with little experience of the game. However, their genuine resolve to join in and support each other contributed to the rapid success and development of the game. Under the leadership of Alison Hembrow and a continuous sequence of very able captains, the teams quickly gained an enviable reputation for their hockey skills and sportsmanship. 

Less than ten years later, the 100th girls’ hockey match was played on 21 September 1996 - fittingly against an Old Breconian Girls XI led by the first ever Girls Hockey captain, Naomi Smith (de Winton 1986-1988). In the same season, led by Suzy Thomas (de Winton 1995-97), for the first time Christ College won both their Home and Away Llandovery games, with Kate Sheehan (de Winton 1996-1998) scoring a hat-trick in the 4-0 Home win.

The rest, as they say, is history - though that’s not entirely true. A deeper dive into the Archive reveals that the Girls 1st XI weren’t allowed to wear green and gold until the following 1997/98 season. That part of their story can be found with Object No.35 in our 15 41 Exhibition. 

The photographs and records above have been generously made avaialble to us by AMH. We should like to offer our thanks for all her help, and also thank those who have contributed hockey team photos to the Archive over the years.  

Tempest photographs (from 2001 onwards in the Gallery) are the copyright of Tempest Photography and are reproduced as low resolution images with their kind permission.

You can order your own copies by contacting Tempest Group photography directly.