A PHOTOGRAPHER from The Bulletin took this image of the women’s hockey team from the Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science (the ‘Dough School’), in October 1932, during a match interval.

There was a thriving women’s-hockey scene at the time. The Bulletin’s own correspondent, who went under the name of Netherby, was a particularly thoughtful critic. As the Dough School picture ran, he or she appraised the record of the teams involved in the West of Scotland tournament.

“There are two distinct standards of play and the gap between them is tremendous,” Netherby wrote. “It is hard to understand why this should be, for with few exceptions all the clubs are former-pupil clubs and proper tuition in the game was obtained at school. Is it that players are too contented with their game? When this is the case, the standard of play usually falls; mistakes creep in and players become careless. It has been said players merely want an enjoyable afternoon, but surely it would be much more so if the result was in keeping with the energy expended. ...In some of the games, good stickwork was negligible. Wrong grips were used for every kind of stroke ...As to constructional play - well, there was none ... Ideas of positional play were seldom in evidence ... Would it not be far better for clubs who have not attained the front rank to go and watch first-class play instead of arranging a full programme of fixtures?”