Thirsk Hockey Club is just over one hundred years old!
In the early 1920’s the Men’s hockey club joined Thirsk Athletic Club. This gave the hockey club a base to call home. In 1926 Sowerby girls' hockey club began playing at the ground and using the club’s facilities.

No hockey was played from 1939 to 1945, as the army requisitioned the pitch and the racecourse. In 1946 Thirsk Athletic Club re-opened with the addition of the renamed Thirsk Women’s Hockey Club.

Since the early days, the hockey club has grown in strength having played their games on an immaculate grass pitch. It always received positive comments from the opposition about how good the grass pitches were kept.

In 1986 the men’s and women’s sections combined to become Thirsk Hockey Club and the junior section was born. Colin Gell (a past chairperson) & Olwynne Dunning, our president, started entertaining a few youngsters for an hour on a Sunday morning at the athletic club. We still have adult players from those very first sessions. In time, enough children came down that we could arrange a few friendly matches, supported by parents, as always!

We joined the Yorkshire Youth Hockey League in 1993 and moved to evening training sessions using the artificial floodlit tennis courts before using the new astro pitch in 1997.

The club had some stalwart coaches and organisers who worked hard to develop junior hockey. What started as small grew quickly to over 100 in 2000 and we now have nearly 250 juniors regularly attending training and matches.

Being committed to providing a 'safe, effective and child-friendly environment' Thirsk Hockey Club celebrated in October 2006 being only the second hockey club within North Yorkshire to be accredited with Sport England’s clubmark and England Hockey’s club first accreditation. We continue to strive to maintain our accreditation.

Playing surfaces

The next major change was in the playing surface. In 1993 the hockey club with the help of Hambleton District Council moved the pitch to Thirsk School and changed the surface to astro, but not forgetting our roots, returning for match teas at the athletic club.

After 17 years of playing on the astro surface, we were overdue a re-surface, which happened during the 2010/11 season and included an upgrade in the floodlights. This was helped by funds from England Hockey, National Hockey Foundation, Hambleton District Council, Thirsk Hockey Club and Northallerton Hockey Club. While the work was completed the club played all home games at Alanbrooke Barracks near Topcliffe. The official opening of the refurbished pitch and lighting took place on 21st April 2012.

Thankfully, we only waited 12 years for the pitch to re-surfaced again, with a new shock pad, which wasn't replaced in 2010, and a new carpet being re-laid in the summer of 2022. The lights were also upgraded to LED lights and we await an upgrade to the changing rooms, thanks to funds from Hambleton District Council.