TEAM Scotland’s Commonwealth Games hopefuls from the Helensburgh area are making their final preparations for action in Birmingham.

The Games’ was opened tonight (Thursday), and hockey international Fiona Burnet and rising table tennis star Lucy Elliott are both looking forward to their first slice of the action.

Scotland’s women are in action on the first day of the hockey schedule at the University of Birmingham Hockey and Squash Centre, taking on South Africa on Friday morning in their opening Pool B tie.

New Zealand are the opposition on Saturday evening, and then it’s Kenya in the morning session on Monday and Australia next Wednesday - with the Scots hoping they’ll do enough to make it into the knockout stages, with the semi-finals and first of the classification matches to be played on Friday, August 5 and the bronze medal tie and final two days later.

Lucy will have to wait rather longer for her first taste of the action: the women’s preliminary group fixtures don’t start until next Wednesday, with preliminary knockout singles ties on August 4 and 5.

The first quarter-finals matches also take place next Friday, with the semi-finals on Saturday and the bronze medal match and the final on Sunday, August 7.

The BBC has coverage of the Games throughout the 12 days of the action – and we’ll have updates online and in next week’s issue on the fortunes of both Fiona and Lucy as they go hunting for medals.