Festival treat for primary pupils

HOCKEY: Pupils from 13 local schools are in for a treat tomorrow when Uddingston Hockey Club hosts a primary school hockey festival at Tannochside Primary School.

Uddingtson has been running an in-school programme since January last year and coaches regularly visit the surrounding primaries and five secondary schools in South and North Lanarkshire and Glasgow areas.

This session, the aim is to coach primary 4-7 and secondary years 1-4 up until June next year with the hope of feeding as many as possible into club’s youth set-up.

The programme has been supported via fundraising by the hockey club plus with the support of Uddingston Sport Hub and grant support from Awards For All and Communities 2014.

And the contacts have already produced a great payback. Three Uddingston Grammar pupils – Beth Coghlan, Marianne Haddow and Cailtin McCart – have played in the club’s Ist XI.

In the boys’ section, Uddingtson Grammar’s Sean Murray, Lewis Haxton and Barry Platt have been selected for the senior development squad and get to train regularly with the first team.

The primary schools involved tomorrow are Muiredge, Carmyle, St Brides, Beckford, St Pauls and Garrowhill, Chatelherault, St Marys, St Johns, Bothwell, Tannochside, Aitkenhead and Hamilton College.