THERE WERE tears of anguish as well as joy for Nicola White as the England women’s hockey team won silver at the Commonwealth Games.
The heart break was that the 26-year-old former Saddleworth Hockey Club player and her team-mates came within 11 seconds from striking gold in a dramatic final against Australia in Glasgow.
Australia, who earlier this year were also crowned world champions, scored a last-gasp equaliser to draw 1-1 and force a penalty shoot decider which England lost 3-1.
Nicola, who missed a penalty in the shootout said: “It is the most upsetting defeat I have experienced as we were so close to winning gold.
“But after a disappointing World Cup a couple of months earlier, when we finished 11th out of 12 teams competing, it was a good result.
“If you told us after the World Cup that we would win silver at the Commonwealth Games, we would probably have taken it.”
Nicola, whose grandmother lives in Dobcross, says the way England turned around their fortunes was pleasing, though it was cruel to lose after being seconds away from taking gold.
She explained: “We weathered the storm pretty well against Australia, soaked up a lot of pressure and scored on the counter attack.
“We didn’t sit back and kept going for goals, but they are so good at coming back and showed why they are such a great team.
“The last few seconds are the crucial moments of games. It is about learning why we lost the game as errors cost us at the end.
“There were valuable lessons to be learnt and with better decision making things might have been different.
“A lot of the girls were playing their first tournaments while we also had a new coach, Danny Kerr and I am sure we will all be better for the experience.”
Nicola regards the silver as a step up after winning bronze at both the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and the 2012 Olympic Games, though gold at a major championship remains elusive.
There is one final tournament at the end of 2014 when Nicola will be hoping to be in the England team which travels to Argentina to take part in the Champions Trophy.
And closer to home Nicola is starting a new life with a new club after moving from Leicester to Kent to join some of her England team-mates at Holcombe who are newly promoted to the premier division of the Investec Women’s Hockey League.
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