HOCKEY players from Marlborough swapped their sticks for running shoes and completed the Bath Half Marathon in aid of SWIFT Medics.

Captain of the hockey club Richard Holman, a manager at The Food Gallery in the High Street, got six players and customer Mitch Bryant together to take part in the event on March 1.

Players from Marlborough Hockey Club, based in Bath Road, handed over a cheque to the charity for £4380 last Wednesday evening.

The team also included John Bromley, Anil Sud, Will Hughes, Rachel Cox and Daisy Beckwith.

They completed the 13.1 mile course in times ranging from one hour and 32 minutes to two hours 20 minutes.

Mr Holman, 31, who completed the route in two hours and 11 minutes, said:” I didn’t have a New Year’s resolution and I wanted to do something different so that’s why I decided to do it.

“Swift Medics don’t get any government funding so they rely on money they get from fundraising like this.

“Personally I found it quite tough. I’d played hockey on Saturday and injured my leg and after about six miles I started to feel it so I had to go to one of the medical tents to get some pain killers.

“I would definitely do it again and we’ve already got people signed up to do it for Swift Medics next year so we should be able to get quite a big group of us together.”

Swift Medics are volunteer doctors living and/or working in Wiltshire who provide out-of-hospital emergency medical care in the county at the scene of serious accidents or sudden severe medical conditions such as cardiac arrest, severe asthma or meningitis.

Dan Bawden, one of the SWIFT Medics team who accepted the cheque, said: “We are hugely grateful to all the runners and their sponsors for this fantastic donation which will help bring life-saving treatment to people in Wiltshire and Swindon.

“We receive no funding from the NHS or government, so are entirely dependent on donations from individuals and organisations.”