St Albans Hockey Club's ladies team begin their national league season at home to Chelmsford this weekend at Oaklands.

It is also the final pre-season friendly for the men's team and they will host Oxford Hawks on Sunday.

The ladies seconds, captained by Ann Marie Davenport, will play against Cheltenham at Oaklands tomorrow in their final warm-up game.

The club will benefit from the experience of Great Britain's Martin Scanlon as the new head coach for the 2015/16 season while the new ladies captain is GB and England international Ellie Watton.

The ladies have a new captain in place with GB and England international Ellie Watton stepping up to the role and several new players have joined the club following trials last weekend.

The club has also encouraged new junior players to get involved by running a 'Beat the Keeper' challenge at Oakland’s College Students' Fair last week which was a a great success and saw complete beginners taking part.