A Cold War hockey match

Available for over a year

In August 1961, the Soviet Union began building a wall between East and West Berlin. Weeks after construction began, the Scotland international women’s hockey team were invited to play against West Germany. They travelled by plane and coach, getting stopped at Checkpoint Charlie, before arriving for the match at the Olympic Hockey Stadium in West Berlin. Although they didn’t win, Valerie Crombie has been speaking to Megan Jones about the significance of taking part and about the memento she got to keep. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive and testimony. Sporting Witness is for those fascinated by sporting history. We take you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes, you become a fan in the stands as we take you back in time to examine memorable victories and agonising defeats from all over the world. You’ll hear from people who have achieved sporting immortality, or those who were there as incredible sporting moments unfolded. Recent episodes explore the forgotten football Women’s World Cup, the plasterer who fought a boxing legend, international football’s biggest ever beating and the man who swam the Amazon river. We look at the lives of some of the most famous F1 drivers, tennis players and athletes as well as people who’ve had ground-breaking impact in their chosen sporting field, including: the most decorated Paralympian, the woman who was the number 1 squash player in the world for nine years, and the first figure skater to wear a hijab. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the tennis player who escaped the Nazis, how a man finally beat a horse in a race, and how the FIFA computer game was created. (Photo: The team at Turnhouse Airport, now known as Edinburgh Airport, in 1961. Credit: Scottish Hockey).