When Bethan Mann joined Watsonians back in 2015, the club’s ambitions were humble and its future anything but certain.
Relegation from Scotland’s top tier hung in the balance, survival was celebrated, and the idea of mixing with Europe’s elite was, at best, a distant dream.
Fast‑forward a decade and Watsonians now stand as four‑time reigning Scottish champions, the dominant force in domestic hockey.
And, most notably, they are the first Scottish women’s club ever to qualify for the EHL Women’s competition. Few players have had a closer view of that transformation than Mann, who has captained the side since 2017 and helped steer the club through its most remarkable era.
“When I joined, Watsonians were in a relegation play‑off to stay in the Premiership,” she recalls. “My choice of club literally depended on who stayed up, Watsonians or ESM!”
The team survived, and for her first two seasons, merely holding onto a top‑flight place was considered success. Training squads mixed experience with rawness; results fluctuated; expectations were modest.
“Our aims were realistic, just stay up,” she says. “Then after a couple of years, it became, ‘Can we finish top six?’ That was progress at the time.”
The turning point came as the team began to establish itself in the league’s upper half. With competitive placements came visibility and suddenly the club started attracting higher‑calibre players.
“Once we were consistently top six and then top four, players actually wanted to come,” Mann says. “We recruited internationals like Sarah Jamieson, Emily Dark, Ellie Wilson… big names who really lifted us.”
But Mann insists the draw wasn’t just success, it was the programme they were putting together
She points to coach Keith Smith, whose relationships across Scottish age‑group pathways made Watsonians an attractive destination, and to a strong team identity built around work ethic and structure.
“We got so much fitter, we built proper S&C, we had a clear training culture. We wanted to show that players joining us would develop and be part of something organised.”
As Watsonians rose, so too did Scottish hockey’s wider competitiveness. Mann believes the two trends are linked.
“I think we’ve been instrumental in pushing standards up. You see it with Scotland qualifying for the World Cup [last week]. It all feeds into each other: the league improving, clubs improving, players improving.”
“I think we’ve been instrumental in pushing standards up”
Watsonians’ Bethan Mann
The rivalry with Edinburgh University, where Mann previously played, has added fuel to that growth. Ironically, the club that once gathered up graduates from the university now competes with it for top honours—and top talent.
Watsonians’ European adventures began four years ago in Türkiye, their first taste of continental hockey at Challenge I level, winning gold in clinical fashion with four wins from four.
“It was daunting, of course,” she says. “But we’d earned it. We weren’t there by luck, and I think we surprised ourselves.”
Since then, Watsonians advanced to Trophy I level, ending fifth in 2024 in Hamburg and then reached the final in Rakovnik last year, only denied in the final by England’s Hampstead & Westminster with a goal 30 seconds from full-time.
“We lost 2–1 to Surbiton and 3–2 in the last seconds against Hampstead. We were competing. It stopped being, ‘Oh God, an English team’, and became, ‘This will be a proper game.’ That mentality shift has been huge.”
And this season they have been flying thus far, winning 11 out of 11 in the Scottish Premier Division and, scoring freely.
But as Mann admits, the league only offers limited competitive matches a year so the club has had to be creative to prepare for European intensity.
“We train against men’s teams all the time. The physicality, the tempo—it helps bridge the gap. It’s definitely part of why we’ve been able to perform in Europe.”
And they will look to use that in their EHL debut against Ireland’s Railway Union, a team who made their own history for Ireland last year when beating MSC Sumchanka but are without the services of Róisín Upton and Sarah Hawkshaw who are playing with Braxgata this season.
The two clubs also met in Lambersart in the EuroHockey Indoor Club Trophy in February with the Scots winning well in the group stages.
“With the indoor girls beating Railway recently, it’s a mentality boost,” Mann says. “But we’re not complacent. We don’t focus on individuals anyway; our game is about us and our structure.”
And with multiple internationals like Jamieson, Fiona Burnet and Katherine Holdgate set to slot into the outdoor side, Mann is quietly confident.
“It’s hugely exciting. Most of our players have never experienced anything like this. The message is: enjoy it, compete, and show people what we can do. We’ve earned our place here.”
After the EHL, domestic goals return quickly: a push for five Scottish titles in a row.
And yet, whatever comes next, Watsonians’ journey, from relegation candidates to European trailblazers, has already reshaped the landscape of Scottish women’s hockey.
“It’s been a massive 10 years,” Mann says simply. “But we’re not done yet.”
