Goal-Getters: Pendle Forest Hockey Club

Pendle Forest Hockey Club’s recent successes are nothing short of momentous. The small local club is, in the words of coach Ian Bythell, massively overperforming for the area they’re in – being first crowned 2023/24 Champions of the Women’s Conference North league and later shortlisted for both Women’s Team of the Year and Emerging Club of the Year at the 2024 England Hockey Awards. Now promoted to Women’s Division One North, the team is about to enter the second-highest tier of English Hockey: an unprecedented achievement for a Lancashire ladies’ team, one which, hopefully, will only continue to propel the club to new heights.

“If you were to put it in footballing terms, we now play at the same level as Burnley,” explains Ian. “We’ve been on an upward spiral for a long time. We had an 87-game unbeaten run in 2018, and that same year, we won Team of the Year at the England Hockey Awards. COVID put many things on pause, but we’ve bounced back and gone from strength to strength. Last year, we won the league with two games to go, so this year, we’ve been promoted, meaning we’re now at the highest level of hockey any Lancashire ladies’ side has ever played. It’s massive. We’re just a little club from Pendle. Now we’re on the national radar!

“It would be a huge achievement just to survive this upcoming season,” he adds. “We’re in league with teams who have played at this high level for years: Repton is a renowned hockey school; Durham is a hockey university; Beeston has two pitches, a warmup pitch, a clubhouse, and a dedicated bar. All we have are school changing rooms and a hired pitch! We’re grassroots; we’re a small club, and we’re in a golden bubble where we have been overperforming. But that bubble might burst this year. All we can hope for is survival.”

Ian first got involved with the club almost 30 years ago and has managed the first team ever since, coaching not only his wife and daughters but also international athletes, namely Commonwealth bronze medallist Charlotte Hartley. Yet despite the team’s incredible successes, Ian stays admirably humble. “I think recently we’ve just had good timing,” he laughs, “mature players have come back to the club, younger players have grown with it, and they’ve played together for a good number of years. We’re predominantly made up of local people, and it is still very much a home-grown team. Our strength is in that.”

Formed in 1967 as Nelson Ladies, the team started out on grass at Nelson Cricket Club before moving to Pendle Leisure’s old astroturf facilities. The subsequent move to school grounds was an act of necessity: Pendle Vale’s facility is now the only remaining pitch that hasn’t been sold off or converted into a different sports ground; it’s the last local place the team can play on. “If those grounds change,” Ian explains, “we would have to move out of Pendle altogether to play. Other teams in our league have purpose-built facilities, but we’re nomadic. It’s crazy, really – we’re playing at the national level, yet we still rely on hiring space from the council or local schools. What’s that about?

“And we still struggle for funding,” he continues. “We have brilliant sponsors like Real Move and Will’s Bar, and we have player sponsorship at £75 a year, but we’re always looking for more. Especially in this upcoming year, because we’ll be travelling out of Lancashire, we’re going to have to hire minibuses, pay for hotel bills, and parents will have to sort out childcare. We need sponsorships more than ever, simply to continue to exist!”

As well as its three adult women’s teams, the club also boasts a thriving junior section – an important asset, Ian explains, for combatting the dwindling support hockey is currently receiving in schools. “We’d really love schools to promote hockey, but they just don’t play it,” he says. “And besides, the curriculum isn’t conducive to putting people into any sort of sport – they have to go through clubs. That’s why it’s important that local schools promote the local hockey club so students know that it is available to them.

“You’ll also find that private schools tend to have a hockey curriculum – they’ll play it two or three times a week, in fact! Hockey is almost an elitist sport in that sense, especially because it’s potentially not cheap to invest in: hockey sticks, gumshields, and shinpads, all of which cost a lot. All we can do is combat that as best we can. People can always come down and have a look at us during training on a Tuesday night. We have about 60 youngsters training from 6 pm-7 pm at Pendle Vale, and we have equipment available for people who don’t have any. But it needs schools playing hockey on a regular basis so that young girls and boys can see and experience the sport to really change things.”

Similarly, Ian clearly states that women’s sports are in no better position overall. “I’ll continue to bang the drum about women’s sport because it’s still seen as a second-class sport. It’s still not supported enough. I don’t think even local people realise we’re playing in the second tier of English hockey! I’m a Nelson lad. I’ve lived here all my life, but we are a deprived area of this country: any funding that we can get into this area for women’s sport – not just hockey – can make a real difference.

“We need investment,” he concludes, “and we need people to spread the word.”

The club always welcomes new players and sponsors. Anyone interested can contact pendleforesthockey.co.uk or directly call Ian at 07801 421633.

NorthernLife Sep/Oct/Nov 24