Surbiton head coach and former Reading, East Grinstead and Great Britain forward Mark Pearn picks the hockey XI he’d relish watching play together…
Goalkeeper
Simon Mason – Reading and England & GB
Pretty obvious one. I played with him at school, as well, so I’ve spent a long time with him. He’s a few years older than me but I’ve been in his teams for most of my hockey career. As a goalkeeper, to stay at the top level for as long as he did was pretty amazing.
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Can’t fault your selections Mark. However, I often reflect on our last Gold Medal winning side that had Ian Taylor in goal and the likes of Robert Clift and Richard Leman, Steve Batchelor and Sean Kerley. They played on sand based pitches of course, but I wonder how they would have coped with today’s fast water based pitches.
No argument with any of these, but since he can’t say it himself, I will. One of my personal favourites to watch – both indoor and outdoor – was a certain Mark Pearn. Creative and intelligent. It always felt like the national set-up never quite saw the best of him. For those of us who had to play against them, the link up between Mark and Danny Hall was just frightening.