A full set of playing records and statistics are a crucial aspect of any sports museum. Player and playing records are one of aspects of the Museum's work that people are most interested in, be it at international, league or club level. Questions such as "How many caps did my uncle get?", "How many times have Wales beaten Scotland in the last 20 years?" or "How many boys from Repton School have gone on to play for England?" are the sorts of enquiries the Museum receives. Most of the information is somewhere in the Museum's archives but we are only just beginning to fully collate it all.

From an international perspective, one of our Trustees, Pat Rowley, has made it part of his life's work to keep a record of all international matches played throughout the world since the first one was played in 1895: Ireland v. England men. These records have information relating to participating teams, dates, scores and scorers and there are records of over 25,000 matches. It is our intention to digitise these records in order to make them available to researchers.

On the English national scene, we have to thank Teresa Morris (past Secretary of the All England Women's Hockey Association) and Bob Mason (past Team Secretary of the Hockey Association) for the amazing handwritten and typed records that they created and maintained for both the women’s and men's England and Great Britain national teams and matches back to the late 1890s. These records have information relating to participating teams, squad lists, scores, scorers, umpires, venue and so on. The Museum also plans to digitise these records but the important thing is that we have the records in the archive.

Our records will also expand to cover the records of both national and regional leagues, but this will take time. We are fortunate to already have three statistically minded volunteers who are beginning to collate all of this information but more help will be needed.

If getting involved in this valuable work appeals to you, please contact us.