[5][dead link] The highlight of her international career was winning a World Championship with England in 1975 in Edinburgh.
[4] She played in five world championships in total, and 19 Wembley internationals, and was the first Englishwoman to win 100 caps.
[6] She was, however, denied the opportunity to compete in the inaugural women's hockey event at the Olympics due to the British team's boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games.
She won two series of multi-sport TV competition Superstars - 1979 and 1981, and in 1985 she was named an officer of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to her sport.
He sat in the stands and remarked to the people around him that Val was the best player he had ever seen in his life and if she had been a man, he would have signed her up there and then, to play for Manchester United!