News

Summer Full Of Hockey

Posted by: Uobhc Club, Added on: 4.10.09, Last Updated: 4.10.09


Over the summer many of our clubs players have been in action representing their country.

Regarding the girls, there was Susie Gilbert who played for the Senior England Women's team in Australia in the Champions Trophy and then traveled with the team to Amsterdam for the Europeans where they claimed a bronze medal and qualified for the World Cup in Argentina 2010. Despite begin a youngster in the senior team Susie played a vital role scoring twice in the quarter finals. Susie is one of the hopefuls for London 2012 and continues training down in Bisham Abbey this year with the prospect of the Olympic Games in mind.

Sophie Bray, Kirsty Dawson and Sarah Haycroft represented England U21's at the Junior World Cup in Boston this summer in which they finished 4th; the highest position an English team has ever finished at these championships and it took a late golden goal from Argentina to put them out.
Sarah Haycroft was also in action for the England U18's along with fellow freshers Holly Payne, Jenna Woolven and Emily Atkinson. The four girls traveled to Belgium for the Junior European Championships. The girls deservedly beat the hosts to win a bronze medal in the 3rd/4th play-off match. They improved upon their success in Belgium to get a gold medal, without losing a game, at the UK School Games in September.

There were four Welsh girls in action over summer too; Hannah Richardson, Elin Thomas, Alys Brooks and Tina Evans trained over summer preparing for the Europeans. Alys and Tina made the final squad that traveled to Rome and collected bronze medal which also gave them qualification for the Commonwealth Games and a place in World Cup qualifications. Tina also had the privilege to captain her country. Bex Condie of Scotland had U21 camps in preparation for the upcoming games against Germany.

Another student with the prerogative to captain his country this summer was Pete Jackson when his England U18 team traveled to Belgium and Wales for the European Championships and the UK school games, respectively. His team which finished 4th in Belgium and 2nd in Wales also included new freshers Scott Evans, Patrick Smith and Ben Stoney; who was the competitions joint top scorer in Wales.

Andy Gooderham got his call up for the Senior England team this summer and was involved in the squads who took on India right here at the University and Pakistan at Cannock.

Also at Senior level, Nick Rees represented Wales at the European Championships where he took home a bronze medal and the right to go to South Africa for World Cup Qualification in November.

The season has started brightly for both the men and ladies first teams. The men flew out of the blocks with a 6-1 win away at Old Georgians, a reverse of the score last year shows great hope for this year. The men then won their first home game of the season by fighting off newly promoted Plymouth Marjon 4-1. The women started as well as the men with a Premier League debut 3-2 win over Brooklands Poyton but lost to a all England Reading team 4-2 away after bravely battling back from a 2-0 margin.