Dr Marie Weir

Scottish Hockey is saddened to hear of the passing of Dr Marie Weir (nee Jaffrey Smith).

Marie was a much respected and hugely admired member of the Scottish Hockey family who made an immense contribution to women’s hockey in Scotland in the 1970s, in fact she revolutionised women’s hockey in Scotland.

Marie was a Scottish international player in the late 40s and early 50s and won a bronze medal at the post war Festival of Women’s Hockey, in 1948, in Amsterdam, which involved teams from the USA, South Africa as well as from Europe.

Then Marie wrote a comments column in the Scotsman on Scottish Women’s hockey for 10 years, in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In the early 70s Marie was the Scottish women’s national coach, including in March 1972 when she coached Scotland to a famous victory over England at Wembley and coached Scotland at the IFWHA world tournament at Peffermill in 1975.

Much of the credit for the ‘professionalisation’ of Scottish international hockey is due to Marie Weir, from her time as national coach from 1971 until after the IFWHA World Tournament in Edinburgh.

Under her leadership, regular training sessions for players in the international and reserve teams became an accepted part of the international season. She also introduced the international team to a sweeper system, in place of the traditional 2-3-5 formation.

During the 1975 World Cup Marie was known to experiment with formations, and also worked very hard on players’ mental approach. She used the book, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, as one inspiration.

Marie also wrote two books about hockey in the 1970s (“Women’s Hockey for the 70s” and “Hockey Coaching a Psychological Approach”.) She wanted to “hone my ideas in team management, team coaching and correct diets for players” and “to spread knowledge about the new approaches to the game”.

Marie also coached the Scottish Schoolgirls teams in the late 1970s

In the last few years Marie published another book called ‘the times of my life’ her autobiography, spanning nine decades of a life lived to the full.

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