The Brighton & Hove forward helped England win the Four Nations Over-55 Masters tournament this month in Nottingham, where they beat Scotland 4-1, Wales 2-0 and Ireland 4-1.

The World Cup - which has been delayed by a year by the pandemic - will be played in Cape Town from October 1 to 10 when England will compete against Argentina, Chile, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, South Africa, United States and Wales.

Ever the hockey enthusiast Ali, who has been playing at BHHC for 27 years, was also part of the club's Masters team (pictured above) which competed at Reading at the weekend.

She reports: "On Saturday June 25th a somewhat depleted Brighton and Hove Women’s Masters team travelled to Reading to play the Reading Masters tournament. Boosted by a few ‘local players’ the team enjoyed a sunny day of great hockey and team morale.

Having been placed in a pool of strong contenders the first game was a toughie. Maidenhead was an established Masters side who were very well drilled with most players, it seemed, only just meeting the O35 requirement! A 0-1 defeat was an honourable score, and the team certainly came out more settled and gelled.

A second match v Wallingford saw some lovely linking moves down both sides with goal chances, but none converted so we settled for a 0-0 draw. With a back-to-back game we then took on South Berks. Great ball outletting from Sam for Marianna to send down the right-hand side, allowed Cressie to create her damage at the base line… some cracking balls being sent across into the D from her eventually found one of our recruits, Teresa, for a perfect deflection and 1-0 win.

Next up came Oxford Hawks. Relentless running and closing down from Alex enabled us to capitalise on more great play down the flanks. Kath did her usual magically calm defending picking a superb ball off the line to deny Oxford a goal, whilst Bunce continued to stop any other goal attempts. The 1-0 win came from constant pressure in the D and a beautifully angled ball from Christine back to Ali for a deflection.

Our final game for placings saw us up against South Berks again. Jo tried her cheeky ‘Ninja’ run from the start and continued to outplay the defence, getting some great shots on goal out of nowhere. A foot in the D awarded us a short corner which was capitalised on by Teresa with a cracking shot that pinged off the keeper's pads. With South Berks equalising towards the end, we settled for a 1-1 draw to give us a joint fifth position overall.

A fab day with a great bunch of players and some excellent hockey proving and highlighting the strength and depth of skill within Brighton O35 players."