Boyce is the senior player in a very young Otago women’s team heading to Christchurch for a title at the New Zealand interprovincial.
If fate had dealt a different hand, she might have been on the victory tour with the T20 World Cup-wining White Ferns, or even preparing for an Olympic cycle with the Black Sticks.
Boyce, a Marlborough native who is teaching physical education at Cromwell College and playing golf out of the Wanaka club, was a talented cricketer.
She played 23 games for Canterbury, memorably smashing an unbeaten 30 off just 15 balls to lead them to victory in the domestic one-day final in 2009, and was a member of a wider White Ferns squad.
After a spell overseas, she was considering a return to cricket before dealing with a troublesome ankle that has required three surgeries.
She would have relished an opportunity to test her skills in a more professional women’s cricket era, and has been delighted to see the progress the code has made in recent years.
"It’s fantastic. It’s awesome for women’s sport, and the White Ferns are really in the headlines now.
"I think women’s sport in the past five years has had a huge shift, which is awesome."
Hockey initially shaped as her ticket to the top.
Boyce was a New Zealand age-group representative and represented the Southern Storm in the former national league while she was at university in Dunedin.
Then there is golf.
She has played for Tasman, Otago and South Canterbury at the New Zealand interprovincial, last appearing in 2019 for her home district, and next week she will represent Otago at the top level for the first time since 2007.
At 40, Boyce is a veritable senior citizen in an Otago team containing three teenagers.
"It’s the first time I’ve been the oldest in a team ever," she laughed.
Boyce only made her comeback to regular golf last year.
Her handicap is down to 2 and she hopes to give the clubs "a good nudge" over the next few years.
She has no doubt next week’s tournament will be challenging.
"It’s probably the fact that someone like myself, a recreational golfer with a fulltime job, has to squeeze practice around that," she said.
"You’re playing young players who have had professional coaching and guidance since they were old enough to hold a club, and they practise for hours a day under awesome coaching.
"They’ve got such fantastic technique ingrained in them.
"Someone like me, there’s a bit of a cricket cover drive and bit of a hockey swing. Sometimes that gets in the way of a more desirable swing plane.
"It’s also playing at the top of the order. Most of them are on plus-handicaps and they don’t make mistakes."
Otago have Yoonae Jeong, likely to be on scholarship at an American college before long, at No1 next week and Boyce at No2.
Schoolgirls Anahera Koni and Sophia Park return after making their debuts a year ago, and Abigael Crawford is back after missing last year.
The Otago women, who won three of their matches last year before losing to Northland in the division-two semifinals, start their campaign with matches against Waikato and Canterbury at the Harewood club on Tuesday.
Wednesday and Thursday matches are at Russley, before the end of the round robin at Harewood on Friday.
NZ interprovincial
Otago women
Yoonae Jeong (Millbrook), Amber Boyce (Wānaka), Anahera Koni (Island Park), Abigael Crawford (St Clair), Sophia Park (Futures Dunedin). Reserve/manager: Liz McRae (Wānaka).
Draw
Tuesday: v Waikato, v Canterbury
Wednesday: bye, v Auckland
Thursday: v Taranaki
Friday: v BOP, v Aorangi
Saturday: Semifinals and final
