Fraser Heigh (pictured) has been the scourge of defences in Scotland’s men’s hockey Premiership this season, now the country’s top marksman hopes to shoot Edinburgh club side Grange to glory in Europe.
The 21-year-old has netted 41 goals in 19 domestic fixtures so far this term, helping Grange to second place in the table, and free-scoring Heigh goes in on Friday against one of the top European hockey clubs.
The former George Watson’s College pupil squares-up to Waterloo Ducks, the first Belgian club to win the EuroHockey League beating German cracks, Ros-Weiss Koln, 4-0 in 2019, in Terrassa, near Barcelona, Spain.
And, depending on the result in the EuroHockey League Ranking Cup, the apprentice civil engineer with consultants Mott MacDonald could face Mannheimer HC, who won the German league in 2017, or London combine Hampstead & Westminster who were English champions in 2019.
Other cross-over games follow but Edinburgh-based Heigh, who was urged to take up hockey by former Scottish international skipper, Mike Leonard, when he was at school, can’t wait to test his ability against top defences and the 6ft 1in striker said: “It’s a real challenge.”
The former 100m runner realises that he faces a massive step-up in class from the Scottish league, but the Great Britain development squad player declared: “Playing in Europe is one of the reasons I signed for Grange.”
The club have three Scotland internationals in their travelling squad, Duncan Riddell, Gordon Amour and goalkeeper David Forrester, the club captain, and Heigh believes they will be influential on and off the pitch.
He added: “It’s excited to get the chance to face this level of opposition as some of these players I’ve watched on TV. We know it will be tough, but we just have to go out there are work hard and maintain our intensity for the whole game.”
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