GB Hockey interim coach Zak Jones is “really excited” about Henry Croft after the Beeston forward was handed a central contract in the GB men’s programme as Bisham sets out its stall towards LA 2028 across the men’s and women’s game.
Croft has been trialling at Bisham this year, first in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics which saw him debut in spectacular style and then this autumn.
He has managed to combine trialling unpaid with working as a sales coordinator in the concrete industry. And his perseverance has paid off after he was revealed as one of 10 players to be offered a centralised contract.
For the men’s programme, Jacob Payton (Surbiton), Fred Newbold (Wimbledon) and Calum Douglas (Southgate) have all been offered contracts while Katie Curtis (Surbiton), Rebecca Daniels (Clifton Robinsons), Georgie Gardens (University of Exeter), Millie Holme (University of Exeter), Pippa Lock (East Grinstead), and Amy Thompson (East Grinstead) have been selected for the women’s programme.
“We are excited about some of these younger guys and we are still in the talent confirmation phase,” added Jones.
GB men and women will hold warm weather camps in the early New Year to assess more Welsh and Scottish players before offering any more places.
“We’ve got a very strong squad who’ve obviously performed incredibly well over the last three years and got to number two in the world,” said Jones from a men’s perspective.
“I think the aim always for this group has been to constantly be on those podiums and be in the mix of big tournaments, and if we can to try to get to No.1 in the world. We’ve got pretty close and the challenge now is to take the learnings from the last cycle in the Olympics and try and continue that trend and be in those medal matches even more often than we were in the last period.”
On the autumn trials, Jones said GB held an open door policy in terms of offering players the chance to see the Bisham vision.
“We had a couple of guys come in who started the process then actually just said to me, ‘Look, actually I thought it was something I wanted to do but it’s not’ and that’s fine. That’s all part of that process, for them to try and get a feel for what being a full-time athlete is.”
Who are the new recruits?
Welsh international Newbold has been a member of the GB Elite Development Programme and captained the side in the 2022 Sultan of Johor Cup where they won a bronze medal.
Payton was a member of the GB U21 team that competed at the 2023 Sultan of Johor where the team finished in fifth place. Douglas has five senior caps for Scotland and most recently played for the EuroHockey Championship Qualifier.
Curtis and Gardens were part of the England Hockey squad that competed at the Junior World Cup in Chile. Welsh internationals Holme and Daniels were part of Team Wales at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Lock represented England at the 2019 Junior EuroHockey Championships and at the 2021/22 FIH Hockey Pro league. Thompson is new to the England and GB set up but has excelled for East Grinstead in the England Hockey League.
The players have been selected after impressing during the Talent Confirmation period – involving camps at Bisham over the last few months.
The Talent Confirmation process is still ongoing, with other athletes being given further opportunities to stake their claim for a place in the men’s or women’s programmes before the final squads are determined in early 2025.
