“A Long Time Coming”: Reading Captain Lucie Daman Ready for next big challenge

** Pictures by Helen Ritchie

When Reading step onto the turf in Den Bosch this Wednesday for their long‑awaited EHL Women’s debut, captain Lucie Daman will carry more history than most.

She is the club’s only remaining link to their last European appearance, a 2013 EuroHockey Club Trophy triumph, but also brings a quiet resilience shaped by a year in which hockey became far more than just a game.

Daman captained Reading to the 2025 English championship around the same time she was diagnosed with a melanoma, understatedly describing it as “quite a stressful time”.

The English success marked a special moment for her as she came full-circle with her first club, the one she grew up at.

She broke into the first team aged 16 and suddenly finding herself alongside icons such as Sam Quek and Kate Richardson‑Walsh, players who would go on to win Olympic gold.

“My first training session… I mean, there were some very talented hockey players there,” she recalls. “I definitely was a bit nervous.”

Yet instead of being overwhelmed, she found a culture that lifted her up.

“They were all very welcoming, very supportive. They respected what I brought on the pitch, even at that age, and that set me up massively.”

Those early years weren’t just about skill acquisition; they were foundational in shaping her character and leadership.

“What’s quite special about Reading,” she continues, “is the environment we create. We respect what everybody brings. That was my experience back then, and it’s the same with the group coming to the EHL. It’s a really nice club to be part of, probably why I’ve been here so long.”

Learning daily from Olympians as a teenager not only accelerated her development but also embedded a framework she now passes on as captain: humility, hard work and reverence for the team above the individual.

From there, she went on to win three BUCS titles with University of Birmingham and shone with the Iowa Hawkeyes in the NCAA before returning to Reading.

The Sonning Lane club, however, had since dropped out of the Premier league and were finding life tricky to get out of the second tier, Covid-19 delaying their progress.

“When I rejoined, we were in Division 1 and eager to get promoted,” Daman says. “We were in really good stead to go up when COVID happened and cut the season off. We almost had to restart, which was tough.”

But collective belief never wavered.

“The club wanted to be playing top‑level hockey again. Individually, everyone bought into that. We’ve now stayed in the Prem for a few years and obviously winning it last year was really exciting.”

Indeed, they are more than surviving as they defied the odds to win the playoffs last year when they beat regular season table-toppers Hampstead & Westminster before beating perennial champs Surbiton.

Last season’s playoff win came as a shock to many but not to the group.

“On paper we were definitely one of the underdogs,” she laughs. “But we always go into every game believing we can win it. That’s something I find really cool about Reading and how we showed up at finals weekend was really special.”

In the labyrinth of the English hockey season, they are sitting in fifth place in the second phase of the competition, assured of playing off in the top eight stage and, ultimately, still in the hunt for laurels despite some mixed results.

Nonetheless, the mood is optimistic: “We’ve had some tough results, but our performances have been getting better. Hopefully that puts us in good stead to compete this week.

“Our coach Rob Foxall‑Smith does a lot tactically behind the scenes. We’ve had prep over the season on our principles and how we want to play and we will take that into Mannheim.”

As for the additional challenges, last season’s title run came an unexpected personal battle. Daman was diagnosed with melanoma just as the campaign reached its climax.

“It was quite a stressful time,” she says. “It’s not something you want to get diagnosed with!”

The discovery came through chance.

“I was a bridesmaid at my sister’s wedding, wearing an open‑back dress, and my family noticed a mole had changed. It looked a lot darker. I got it checked, and it came back as melanoma which had unfortunately spread.”

She has been undergoing treatment throughout the past year, balancing side effects with a full‑time job and elite hockey.

“It’s not easy being on cancer treatment,” she says. “Some weeks are different, but I’m able to manage it now.”

Initially unsure whether to share her diagnosis publicly, she ultimately decided awareness mattered more.

“One of the biggest things around melanoma is knowledge. Quite a few people have told me they went and got their skin checked because of my story. A few things were caught early, which is really important.”

And she pushed that awareness message further last August with her ultra‑challenge fundraising walk – 12 hours along the southwest coast of England, a route packed with hills and pitfalls. In the end, she raised over six times her target.

“I was blown away by the support. My family and my partner Chris have been pretty great through everything. I couldn’t have asked for more.”

Now, she has a European return on the mind. Daman’s memories of Reading’s last European trip are understandably fuzzy – “I can’t even remember where it was!” she says before recalling it was Antwerp 2013. But the feeling of competing among Europe’s best has stayed with her.

“We did really well. I was surrounded by some very talented, very experienced players. Coming out now to captain the side… it’s even more special really, having had such a long history with the club.”

This week, she leads a new generation into Reading’s biggest stage in over a decade, a journey she helped build, one she fought through adversity to reach, and one she now fully owns.

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