GWENT Hockey Club’s ladies first XI players will embark on an unprecedented adventure in two months' time.

Early on May 21, 18 squad members and coaches for Newport Gwent 1sts, as the team is known, will travel from Wales to Heathrow Airport where they will then fly to Prague to take part in a continental competition for the first time in their history.

The party will be jetting out to the Czech Republic to play teams from Sweden, Austria and the host nation. Other teams from Austria, Turkey, Gibraltar and Greece will be seeded in another pool as part of the 2015 EuroHockey Club Championship.

The ladies’ first XI’s captain Alice Mundy said: “We are very excited for the trip. Some of the girls haven’t been out of the UK so for this to be their first trip away is pretty special."

But what the players will know about their opponents when they face the Czechs of HC 1946 Praga, Austrians who form Post SV and Nacka LHK of Sweden, will be limited having never faced them before.

Ms Mundy said: “Quite a lot of them are going to be unknown. That is one of the things we are excited about, testing ourselves against people we have never played before.

“We see the same names come up in the league or the cup competition, but it’s the first time to see how our standards compare with others. We always try to set targets that we think are achievable but to push ourselves as far as we can.”

Among the team’s ranks, some are in line for international recognition. The team’s goalkeeper Isabel Marsh, who attends the University of South Wales and is originally from Caerleon, and Heather Francis, from Crickhowell, have trained with the senior Welsh team.

The team’s coach Andrew Jones told the Argus of other players who form the ladies' team: “There’s quite a number of girls who are in full time schooling. There’s girls in university - and some who are in the Welsh international age groups as well."

The club is boosted by volunteers. Mr Jones says the help of one of them, John Burrows, has been invaluable over the years.

He said: “[Mr Burrows] does a lot of work going into schools and encouraging them to come to the club. He’s the lifeblood of the club; he’s Mr Gwent Hockey as far as I’m concerned."

One talented player he spotted was Mr Jones’ daughter, Stevie, who now plays in the ladies’ team. He saw Stevie playing and encouraged her to develop her talent.

And Ms Mundy added: “Youth is a massive section of the club. They seem to have new members every week and are recruiting from the schools, so that is really good for the future. It is a club people feel they can come back to.”

Ms Mundy started playing hockey at Caldicot Comprehensive School when she was 11 and was encouraged to take part in the sport. Now 28, she has been the team’s captain for the last two seasons.

League games for the ladies' and men's teams take place on Saturday but other cup games can be held on a Sunday so players who take part have to display a great deal of commitment to play in every match. Not least because some of them have children of their own to look after.

But Ms Mundy said family members are supportive and that about 10 will be travelling out to Prague with the players to cheer them on.

The players and staff were rocked when they were told they had to find a hefty total for a new set of kit for their continental adventure. When the club normally plays, players are given an individual squad number – but because of the total of players it has, that has soared into the eighties.

So it came as an unwelcome surprise that to compete in the Club Championship, the players' numbers have to be under 32. Funding for the new kit started in earnest - and was given a welcome boost by Newport businessman Kyle Jones, who runs the Spa Breaks Online and Cheap Financial Claims websites.

Other money has been come by fundraising at supermarkets and more cash will be brought in with a raffle that will be drawn at the end of this month.

The sport can be expensive. Players can get through two hockey sticks a season – and they can cost upwards of £300 each. There’s that aforementioned kit they have to shell out on; and then there’s the travel, paying to get to and from games. When players also come to Newport from as far away as Crickhowell, Abergavenny and Blaenavon to play and train for the club every week, it’s clear it is not cheap to take part.

Mr Jones added: “We go all over Wales. We have done a few in South Wales and gone around Wales and that is all out of the girls’ pockets.”

The club’s former training ground at what is now Dragon Park at the Newport International Sports Village can no longer be used for their training – so they train at Rougemont School in Malpas and then play their games at Cwmbran Stadium or at other pitches around Gwent.

Mr Jones said the club is looking to get somewhere more permanent if they can and building up the club and its members – but he is confident it is going in a positive direction.

For more information on how to get involved with the hockey club and to follow the rest of their season, visit pitchero.com/clubs/gwenthockeyclub.