The Royal Family have a long history of patronages and support for a range of charities, organisations and military units – but also sports. Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, is an avid hockey fan and patron of England Hockey. In a radio interview, the Duchess recalled a tense match back in 2016 which led to a hilarious moment with the late Queen Elizabeth II, resulting in her being dismissed from the dinner table.
Talking about her love of hockey in a recent interview, the Duchess recalled an incident at Balmoral Castle when her support for the England team meant she was excused early from dinner by her late mother-in-law (Sophie is married to Prince Edward, the youngest son og Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip).
Chris Jackson
‘I was in Balmoral, yes, and I’d been watching all of [the England hockey team’s] matches all the way through,’ Sophie explained to Radio 5 Live. ‘I’d been in touch with one of the directors and texting and sending messages to the girls all the way through and they were doing so well, and then they got into the final.’
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The Duchess wasn’t able to be at the game in person and, due to the time difference, the final coincided with a dinner she was attending at Balmoral in Scotland. ‘I was sitting at dinner thinking, “I really want…what’s going on, what’s going on?” she said. Luckily, someone helping at the dinner was a fellow fan and came over to discreetly whisper the score and keep her up to date.
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Despite the updates, Sophie explained that she found it hard to keep calm, which hadn’t gone unnoticed by the late Queen. ‘We were sitting at the end of dinner and I was twitching and Her Majesty sat there and said, “Oh for goodness sake just go!”’ Sophie said on the show, laughing. ‘So I ran through to the library and I was watching it.’ She added that her ‘father in law, the late Duke of Edinburgh came through – and he loved good sport – and he sat down and watched it with me.’
The Duchess said she was ‘literally living and breathing every moment’ of the match, and that the Queen later joined, but had to take herself away as the pressure of the penalties became too much for her. The Duchess said she was jumping and cheering so much she joked that that Prince Philip ‘was watching my reaction more than he was watching the television’ and the he was laughing at her enthusiastic responses.