Bowdon Stalwart Jane Donnelly, 40, Still Going Strong In Push For Promotion

Photo credit: David Bellin

Rod Gilmour from The Hockey Paper spoke to Bowdon defender Jane Donnelly, 40, on making her children proud, how she maintains her fitness and her aim to help the club return to the top tier.

“My husband keeps on asking me each season if it will be my last,” says Jane Donnelly, Bowdon's stalwart centre back who celebrated her 40th birthday in May. “I haven’t listened to him for 21 years so I’m not going to start now. I keep saying 'maybe, maybe not!'”

Despite being a working mum, Donnelly is still playing elite hockey thanks to a supportive husband, with two highly active sons in tow, as the Greater Manchester outfit aims to win promotion from Division One North and return to the Vitality Women’s Premier Division after being relegated for the first time last year.

When Bowdon were in the top flight, they were the only team based in the north of England and she hails her husband for being able to undergo regular trips south every other weekend. “The older you get the easier it becomes,” Donnelly admitted.

She says her two boys - Lucas, 12, and Eoin, 8 - are both proud of her while they watch Bowdon’s matches most weekends, along with her ever-present parents.

“There is a particular tree that my youngest likes to climb when I play,” added Donnelly. “Whenever we have a short corner I might turn around and see him hanging upside down. He’s like ‘it’s okay mum, I’ve got my helmet on!’. It’s hard but they love visiting the club.”

Donnelly, a PE teacher at Ackworth School in Pontefract, Yorkshire, is into her seventh season at Bowdon. Based in Leeds, she is also used to the miles of travelling she has racked up in a lengthy playing career after previously playing for Olton & West Warwicks alongside best friend Sally Walton, the former Great Britain international. “I just love it still, love playing so it’s all fine,” she readily admitted.

So how does she keep fit enough to stay at the top of her game? “I train like a lunatic,” she laughed. “My husband and family are really supportive and I now have a personal trainer once a week. I even made my husband come to the gym this week with the kids. 

“I wouldn't be playing now if I wasn’t as fit as I am and I wish I was this fit when I was 21. You take things for granted when you're that age.”

It is a marvel that Donnelly is still even playing the game to a high standard. She thinks she broke her back playing school hockey as a 16 year-old when she was “taken out” by a goalkeeper.

Initially, it didn’t seem to affect her hockey as she kept playing. She was close to being selected for England’s Junior World Cup squad before failing fitness tests due to continual back ache and finding walking an increasing difficulty. It was later diagnosed as a bilateral stress fracture. 

Five years after her injury, in 2001, she finally had an operation and now describes her back akin to a “Meccano set with metal work and screws”.

In the intervening years she admits to never being off the physio’s table and decided to opt for a personal trainer three seasons ago. “I haven’t looked back and he has slowly built my strength up,” she said. “I’m doing things now that I always made excuses not to do because of my back. I certainly wouldn’t be playing now without him.”

The only remaining team to have been in the top flight for all 30 years of the women's national league, Bowdon were finally relegated in February 2020.

“When I was at Olton, Bowdon were a staple of the Premier Division and hard to play against, and so to go down with them was absolutely heart-wrenching,” added Donnelly. “There is the legacy of the club and the Olympians we have produced. It was a sad time for us.

“It was also a massive shame for club hockey in the north. But there is a real buzz about the team now, the club moves forwards, the junior section continues to produce and three of the new girls nearly add up to my age!”

“Tina [Cullen] is also an unbelievable coach and I look forward to training and getting there [even though it can be a three-hour round trip]. And despite going down, I think it was a chance for us to rebuild. We are playing some great hockey and there are no egos in the side. Everyone has a voice, everyone is heard and we all get on so well. It’s true northern grit!”

Donnelly says that returning to the top flight - University of Nottingham and University of Durham seem to be Bowdon’s main rivals this season - would mean “absolutely everything” to the club. 

“More for Tina more than anything,” she added. “She puts so many hours in with her assistant coaches. It would be amazing for the club and the sport in the north. It’s mainly such a southern game at the top at the moment, it needs some teams in there for the northern youngsters to fly the flag. It would mean the world for a lot of people.”

Pre-Covid, Donnelly had taken 20 to 30 school kids to Bowdon Club, who would act as ball patrol, and looks forward to being able to continue those trips. The 40-year-old also believes that clubs need to do more to engage with supporters and to entice potential sponsors to the sport. 

“It’s important that we get hockey rolling again with more support,” she said. “It’s important to get the crowds up to get more sponsors and spread the word of hockey. It’s such a great game after all.”

Saturday: Bowdon Women v Belper Women, 1:30pm