It was tough assignment. GB women’s hockey chose a series of matches against the Olympic silver medalists, China, to launch their assault on a competitive season that will include hosting The Champions Trophy in Nottingham and playing the World Cup in Argentina.

But having fielded a young, partially experimental, GB team at Bisham Abbey against the Chinese they emerged with credit, winning the first warm-up game and then losing two closely-contested Test matches by a narrow margin of goals. They lost the first test 2-1, China scoring from their only two penalty corners of the game, and the second 3-1 after the home side failed to convert a series of corners and chances.

Danny Kerry, the GB women’s coach, was quietly impressed by his team’s ability to dominate the possession, but did admit to a nagging frustration at the failure to convert their chances. "But this is all about preparation for the major tournaments this year. The big thing, as a group, is that we’re making massive gains and it fills me with a lot of optimism," he said.

Among the relative newcomers to combat were debutant Ashleigh Ball, forward Charlotte Craddock, defender Nat Seymour and goalkeeper, Kirsty Mackay, from Blackpool who once bumped into David Beckham in the Disney Store at the Trafford Shopping Centre in Manchester and has his autograph to prove it.

The second Test also marked the 50th cap of defender Crista Cullen, who was returning to the team after a long injury lay-off following a serious operation on her wrist. Since her idea of recuperation was to drive a land cruiser down the East Coast of Africa with a friend, involving at least one swollen river, a home-made raft and a crowd of on-looking hippos, her successful reinstatement in the team was not a forgone conclusion.

Her coach described her as a "rumbustious" character, both "hugely strong and hugely athletic". Born in England and brought up in Kenya, Cullen has an elder brother, Gray, who is currently auditioning for the Kenya rugby sevens squad to play at the Commonwealth Games in India this autumn. It could make a good Trivial Pursuit question one day: "Name the brother and sister who played in two different sport for two different countries at the 2010 Commonwealth Games."



The preparation for this year’s World Cup now moves on to matches against Germany in May and Australia in June. It has not yet been decided which of the matches will be granted Test status but according to Kerry it makes little difference. "We don’t play friendlies against Australia anyway."

Possibly restored to the side by then could be a number of players from Scotland and Wales. Laura Bartlett, Emily McGuire and goalkeeper Abi Walker were all missing from the Test series against China because they were due fly to Chile on Sunday - volcanic dust permitting - for Scotland’s World Cup qualifying matches. Although lowest ranked of all the team in the group which includes Australia and Ireland, Walker was adamant that the Scots intend to "take more points off the teams than they take off us."

Walker was taking a short leave of absence from her day job to compete. She is a surgeon at St George’s Hospital in London, having recently completed a stint in brain surgery.

When people ask footballers about being brain surgeons, it is a fair bet they are only joking. When it comes to women’s hockey, it happens to be absolutely true. 

Award-winning sports columnist, feature writer and chief interviewer at the Daily Telegraph for 12 years, Sue Mott is now much in demand in her new freelance capacity. A major contributor to television and radio - all terrestrial channels, Sky, ESPN and Radio 5Live - she has covered all the major sporting events including World Cups, Olympics, Wimbledon, Commonwealth Games, Athletic World Championships, FA Cup Finals and several Test series.

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