Hockey are hitting the ground running for Team Scotland Sport Focus as they start their time in the spotlight today with the first of five women’s test matches against Canada. This test series at the Glasgow National Hockey Centre from 15-21 May kicks off a huge summer for Scotland’s women as they prepare for the Hockey Series Finals in Dublin followed by the EuroHockey Championship II back on home soil in August where they will be looking for promotion back to the top flight.

Scotland’s men also have a busy summer ahead having won four of their five qualifying matches to take their place at June’s Hockey Series finals in France. 2018 also saw the men’s side take an outstanding win at EuroHockey Championship II and they will take their place among the top eight European nations in Belgium from 16-25 August.

As part of our ‘Celebrating Our Past, Building Our Future’ theme, each month Team Scotland are putting one or two sports in the Sport Focus spotlight, featuring all 25 sports in which Scotland has competed in the Commonwealth Games.

Look out for all things Hockey on Team Scotland’s website and social channels this month as the sport shares the spotlight with Squash. Join us as we delve into the archives for tales of past success and also look ahead to the rising stars of the sport in Scotland.

Hockey at the Commonwealth Games

Hockey made its Commonwealth Games debut at Kuala Lumpur 1998 and, as a core sport, has appeared at each Games since. Australia have dominated the sport, winning every men’s gold medal to date and four out of six possible women’s titles.

At the sport’s first Games in 1998 Scotland sent a women’s team, who played brilliantly, winning three of their five group games. A 2-2 draw with India in their final group game saw them just miss out on a semi-final place on goal difference. While classification games were not played in 1998, this remains one of the women’s side’s best ever finishes, along with 5th place at Melbourne 2006 where they beat Malaysia 3-0 in the fifth/sixth place play-off.

Scotland’s men made their Games debut at Melbourne 2006, where they finished 7th after a win over South Africa in the classification play-offs. A great performance at Gold Coast 2018 saw them better that result, taking 6th place for their best finish in Commonwealth Games history.

Hockey was also included at the first Commonwealth Youth Games in Edinburgh, the sport’s only appearance at the Youth Games to date. That Youth Games team included Vikki Bunce who went on to win 206 caps for Scotland and play at three Commonwealth Games: 2006, 2010 and 2014.

Find out more about Hockey in the Commonwealth Games on our dedicated Hockey page.

Scotland at the Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games is the only occasion where Scotland gets to compete in a multi-sport event as a nation in its own right and is one of only six countries to have competed in every Commonwealth Games since their inception in Hamilton in 1930. Represented by 15 athletes participating in six sports at those first Games, winning a very creditable 10 medals, Scotland have gone on to win medals at every Games since.

Edinburgh became the first city to hold the Games twice in 1970 and 1986 and also became the first city to host the Commonwealth Youth Games.

Scotland hosted the Games for a third time when Glasgow welcomed athletes and officials to the XXth Commonwealth Games which was held from 23rd July – 3rd August 2014. Team Scotland celebrated their most successful Games in history, winning a total of 53 medals and went on to record their highest overseas medal tally ever at Gold Coast 2018.

Find out more about the Commonwealth Games and Team Scotland’s past success in our Past Games section.