Irish hockey has been left numbed by the news of the sudden death in Dublin on Tuesday of Jacqui Potter, one of the country's most capped internationals and one of its finest ever players. She was just 38 years old. Joan McCloy, the president of the Irish Hockey Association, said she was "devastated by the news". "Everybody is just shocked and dazed and finding it impossible to take in," she said yesterday. "Jacqui was extremely popular, respected and very well known through hockey, all over the country and much further afield. Our sympathies go to all her family and friends who have been left with this terrible burden to bear."
Jacqui Potter's senior international career spanned seven years, between 1984 and 1990, and she won 86 caps and captained her country. She was a wonderfully-gifted forward, unmissable in her trademark green bandana. She was also a prolific goalscorer, a talent signalled in 1978 when she scored 100 goals while playing for Clontarf hockey club's junior side and her school, Holy Faith, Clontarf. After that no one kept records, they couldn't keep up.
It was, however, with Muckross hockey club that she spent much of her career and where she won almost every honour the game could bestow. She was called up to the senior Irish squad when she was just 20, winning her first cap against Wales in March 1984. Three years later she was a member of the Ian Steepe-coached team that won the Triple Crown, a feat that included a famous 2-1 victory over England in Gateshead.
In recent years she had a spell coaching the Monkstown men's team before joining Hermes where she was joint coach of the team which won the Irish Senior Cup last year. She was still playing for the club's third team this season.
"There are no words to describe how we feel today," said Hermes manager Joan Morgan. "Jacqui was a great, great person with a huge circle of friends and we will all miss her desperately."
Her loss is an inestimable one for her family and friends and for everyone in Irish hockey. May she rest in peace.
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