Imrie faces reshaping headache

The University of Edinburgh men’s hockey club have challenged Grange and Western for silverware in recent seasons, but coach Hamish Imrie has a massive job on his hands this term as he will have to drastically reshape his squad.

It’s a perennial problem for student teams because of the high turnover due to graduations and educational placements.

Imrie (pictured in red shirt talking to match officials) reports that a number of his regulars have now left including Robbie Croll, a key element in past successes, who has signed for city rivals, Grange, one of Imrie’s former clubs before he played abroad in Belgium for Royal Antwerp and in Germany for Harvestuder. He also had a spell with Beeston in England.

Imrie, who has scored 20 goals in 35 appearances for Scotland, was once signed on an S Form by Edinburgh-based football team, Hibernian FC, and took over from former Olympian, Graham Moodie, at Peffermill Playing Fields. He has done a fine job with the squad.

The former Fettes College pupil has guided them to two third place finishes in the Scottish Premiership, promotion in the 2022-23 season to the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Premier League and wins in the BUCS Vase in 2022 and 2023.

Edinburgh-born Imrie said: “We will have between ten and 12 newcomers into the first team squad which is a total shift for us.”