St Albans Hockey Club will be the venue for three games as part of the nationwide Hockey for Heroes OpStretcher Tour.

Every two years the tour by the Hockey for Heroes squad takes on a new challenge to raise money for injured servicemen and women.

And this year the squad will face a military select XI, Hertford Hockey Club as well as the Tangerines in back-to-back games on Friday, June 2.

The first game will start at St Albans’ Oaklands College home at 4pm, with the second at 6pm and the final match against the hosts starting at 7.30pm.

The tour squad will comprise 44 players who will take it in turns to carry a stretcher.

On the stretcher will be ex-Royal Marine Dom Hugill-Lovett who was injured during a military training exercise and is now a paraplegic.

The tour, which starts on Friday with a game against a Welsh XI in Cardiff, will cover 200 miles and over 30 games.

It will finish 10 days later at Marlow Hockey Club where the team will take on a ladies select team, put together by GB’s gold-medal winning ladies coach Danny Kerry.

It will pass through both Harpenden and St Albans on its way to Oaklands.

Joel Forrester, CEO of Hockey for Heroes, said: “We are about to embark on this 10-day objective. We feel prepared and ready to take this challenge head on.

“The planning and preparation has gone fantastically well and the squad is ready to make OpStretcher a huge success.

“The squad would love your support at all the venues if you are able to come to watch any of the games or take part in the charity raffle.

“The tour will see volunteers walking alongside the stretcher with buckets to collect money and Hockey for Heroes welcome anyone to walk alongside them during this tour.”

# St Albans Hockey Club Girls U12A team celebrated the end to an excellent season at their junior awards evening.

The girls won Division One of the Chiltern League, as well as finishing as runners up in the In2Hockey England County finals.

That got them through to the East of England Regional finals as one of the two clubs representing Hertfordshire.

In total this season, the team played 35 matches, won 19, drew eight and lost eight.