The FIH’s stance on swiftly moving Hockey 5s to a World Cup showpiece has left England Hockey to admit that the format calls for long-term vision.
How this plays out in terms of player make-up and funding was being discussed by the GB and England board at its meeting last month, as the threat of turning the game to 5s over 11-a-side remains at Olympic level.
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The influx of foreign players to the Dutch Hoofdklasse league is “stagnating” the growth of homegrown talent, accoring to new Oranje men’s coach Jeroen Delmee.
Delmee, who played 401 times for the Netherlands during a distinguished career, took over from Max Caldas following the Tokyo Olympics.
Speaking to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, Delmee said that emerging players were not being given the opportunities in the Big Leagues.
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Lucy Holder has always been a fan of Alex Danson-Bennett’s “crazy reverse stick hitting” over the forehand strike. On Saturday, the 23-year-old scored her first of the season with one of her playing heroes and now Wimbledon coach watching on from the sidelines.
The forward, admitting to natural instincts in her match-winning strike, was on hand to follow up a rebound from Hollie Pearne-Webb as Wimbledon beat Holcombe 2-0 for their first win of the season in the Vitality Women’s Premier Division after Eliza Brett’s early goal.
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England Hockey became the third nation to withdraw from the men’s Junior World Cup in India on Monday, joining Australia and New Zealand.
The event is due to take place in Bhubaneswar late late next month but England Hockey cited “Covid-related concerns” in its decison to the FIH and said participation became “untenable” with a current 10-day quarantine in place for all UK nationals.
The Hockey Paper had reported last week that the governing body had yet to make a decision on competing in the junior showpiece tournament, starting on Nov 24.
Performance Director Ed Barney said: “With a heavy heart we have chosen to withdraw from the tournament. We are hugely empathetic to the players and coaches who will miss out on this opportunity to represent their country.
“We have experienced the herculean effort that went into the Olympic Games, and alongside this we saw the implications across some British sports and our international hockey counterparts when COVID was prevalent.
“On balance, and against clear criterion, we have made the difficult decision that it is not appropriate for our junior international men to travel.”
England Hockey will continue to monitor travel restrictions placed on South Africa ahead of the Women’s Junior World Cup, scheduled for December.
Australia and New Zealand teams pulled out last month, alongside other elite competitions. USA and Canada were invited to the Men’s Junior World Cup in their place, while another spot has now opened with England’s withdrawal.
The teams still set to compete are India, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa, Egypt, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, USA, Canada, Chile and Argentina.
Jawed Khan has been announced as the new honorary secretary of the World Grand Masters Association (WGMA).
Khan takes over from Adrian Stephenson, WGMA’s secretary for 13 years, the association having been formed in 2002 as a result of a fast growing interest in Grand Masters (60+) hockey.
Stephenson will stay on the board to assist both president John Willmott and Khan moving forwards.
Willmott said: “Adrian, along with Wim [van Noortwijk] and before him Peter Child, has been one of the driving forces behind the rapid growth of Grand Masters hockey worldwide and the many events and friendships that have been made are a direct result of Adrian’s distinguished and dedicated work on all Grand Masters’s behalf.
“As the pandemic appears to be subsiding, we are all hoping that worldwide hockey will start to return to normal and that 2022 is going to provide us with many opportunities to both play and so meet up at events all around the world.”
Before that, Hockey Wales has announced an event for National O75 teams from Nov 9-11 in Cardiff and hope to attract teams from England, Netherlands and Scotland.
Meanwhile, the International Super Veterans Tournament will take place in 2022.
HC Tilburg have announced the definite dates of the ISVT Tournament 2022 from May 6-8.
At a recent meeting, WMH also announced the dates and venues for the WMH European Championship tournaments in 2023:
Coverage of the women’s Euro Hockey League Ranking Cup was criticised after failing to receive equal status of the men’s tournament.
On the face of it, the men’s EHL Ranking Cup in Brasschaat, home of KHC Dragons, was given preferential treatment, with regular promotion on social media throughout the weekend.
However, the women’s tournament, which had a limited schedule, only had live coverage on EHL TV and with no clips or social media promotion, while GB and Surbiton star Leah Wilkinson said that TV commentators didn’t know the players’ names.
Kate Richardson-Walsh said on Twitter: “Would this be allowed to happen for the men’s side of this competition? Who is this built for? Who is built by? Who is this built with? Who is this built without?”
“Unfortunately, we did not have the facility to do this in Hamburg this weekend,” the Euro Hockey League said.
EHL chairman Hans-Erik Tuijt had said last year that the tournament in Hamburg was “another first” for the sport, adding: “In the spirit of always improving the best club hockey in the world, the EHL keeps pushing for new ways to connect with our fans.”
April had seen the long-anticipated introduction of EHL Women for the first time.
The Euro Hockey League was praised back in late 2018 for taking club hockey “to the next level” following the news that the 2019/20 season would see the introduction of EHL Women.
Hamburg ruled the roost at home
The pandemic twice pushed the new format back but the women’s event joined the men’s European showpiece for the first time in Amsterdam after two standalone tournaments.
The historic first match featured Spanish champions Club de Campo against Germany’s 2018 and 2019 winners Der Club an der Alster.
Ultimately, Den Bosch became the first ever EHL Women’s champions, beating Club de Campo de Madrid in the Grand Final at the Wagener Stadium as Frédérique Matla fired a hat-trick.
David Lloyd-Williams continues to chart how the controversial GMS came to fruition in the second part of our exclusive serieson a system which officials hope will lift the grassroots game
When the GMS concept first arose, England Hockey’s Rich Beer and I saw this as the obvious way forward for the domestic game and the prospective new Areas. Having agreed on some basics, we wrote a high level piece and circulated it to a handful of wise heads.
This group met just before Christmas 2019 at Bisham Abbey. At this point, it wasn’t a project in any shape or form. There was no budget, no plan, and above all, no certainty that this would ever happen. We made some big decisions which seemed obvious only in hindsight.
Our league software would exist only as a stand-alone, back-end admin system. It would not have its own front-end website.
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English clubs certainly put up a brave fight in continental competition but ultimately failed to make it count when it mattered across a weekend of top European men’s and women’s action.
Amy Costello, a GB women’s reserve at Tokyo 2020, shone for her new side UHC Hamburg as her penalty corner double earned victory for the hosts over Surbiton women.
The German side finished in fifth at the women’s ABN AMRO EHL Ranking Cup in Hamburg with the English side settling for sixth in a tight contest, while here you can see more online betting promo codes.
The deadlock was broken in the 11th minute when former East Grinstead star Costello powered her shot through the defences of Sabbie Heesh.
Surbiton captain Sarah Evans had a clean drive slip just wide but while they could not make full use of their corner chances, UHC nailed their second goal with Costello ripping one down the glove.
Hamburg ruled the roost at home
UHC held on for the victory to boost Germany’s Ranking Table coefficient while Surbiton had chances to claw back the deficit.
Three second quarter goals put Hampstead & Westminster on course for a strong 4-1 win to earn a share of 13th place overall from the men’s ABN AMRO EHL Ranking Cup in B, with Three Rock Rovers ending 17th in Braaschaat.
The Londoners went in front in the 17th minute when Matt Guise-Brown nailed his side’s second penalty corner.
Josh Kelly doubled up within a minute when he followed up from a Conor Quinn save; Matt Ramshaw took over the flicking duties for their third corner and duly made it 3-0.
Sharp extends Hampstead's lead, have they done enough now? #EHL
Rovers, meanwhile, got on the board via Jody Hosking’s pin-point reverse-stick shot which picked out the bottom corner, 3-1 at half-time. On the break, Joe Sharp got off the turf quickly to slip home from close quarters to put the game to bed.
On Saturday, Hampstead and Surbiton had both endured shoot-out defeats after putting up fine performances.
Loic van Doren and hosts KHC Dragons produced a sublime shoot-out to beat Surbiton and reach the fifth place playoff against Rot-Weiss Köln, with the English side ending with a 13th place ranking after a 1-1 draw. Dragons then slotted home all their shoot-out efforts.
Felix Denayer then put on a showcase to delight the home Dragons crowd as they closed out the weekend with a 5-1 win over Rot-Weiss Köln.
Dragons take the plaudits PIC:
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Earlier, three late goals saw Mannheimer HC eventually break the shackles to land fifth place from the men’s EHL Ranking Cup in Brasschaat, seeing off HC Minsk who earn ninth place for their weekend’s work.
Meanwhile, East Grinstead women were also in action in the EuroHockey Club Trophy. They began with an 8-1 defeat to Gantoise HC on Thursday before responding in style as a hat-trick from Sophie Bray saw them beat Lille 7-0.
They then lost 4-3 to Spanish side Sanse Complutense and on Sunday were defeated 5-0 to Belgium’s Braxgata as the West Sussex side finished fourth overall. Bray finished with four goals.
Buckingham, University of Birmingham and Wimbledon all picked up first wins of the season in the Vitality Women’s Premier Division on Saturday.
Zak Jones’ Buckingham claimed their first victory to move them second in the table behind Hampstead & Westminster, who continue to set the pace.
Jo Day’s field goal shortly before half-time was enough to see Buckingham beat Loughborough Students, with the university side playing their first game since the sad death of coach Andy Gibson.
The win extends their unbeaten run so far this season to three following two draws in their opening fixtures.
With Surbiton and East Grinstead in EuroHockey League action, Hampstead & Westminster strengthened their lead at the top of the table with a 3-1 win against Clifton Robinsons.
Lauren Turner scored for a third game in a row to give Hampstead the lead with a penalty stroke in the 45th minute. Esme Burge added to their advantage six minutes later before Sarah Robertson’s second goal of the season secured a third successive win. Holly Munro scored with the last touch of the match for Clifton.
Buckingham and Clifton go head-to-head PIC: Graeme Wilcockson/Focus Images Ltd
The University of Birmingham were also victors for the first time as they beat Swansea 4-2.
Sara Davies fired the Welsh side ahead in just the third minute before Lillie Walker levelled proceedings shortly before half-time.
Birmingham then scored three goals in 11 minutes through Millie Atwell, Carter Ayars and Becky Manton to establish a clear advantage which Swansea couldn’t overturn, despite Rebecca Treharne scoring in the 55th minute.
Wimbledon earned themselves a maiden win as they beat Holcombe 2-0 in the driving rain in south-west London.
Eliza Brett caught the visitors cold in the second minute before Lucy Holder added a second midway through the second half to secure the points.
Ian Stewart’s brilliant goal propelled Corinthian to their first win of the season as they got the better of Monkstown at Rathdown.
He latched onto a mammoth overhead from the back and applied a delicious finish from a tight angle to give the reds their second successive win having previously had to wait 18 months for their previous three-pointer.
It has them in a three-way share of second place at this early stage of the campaign alongside Three Rock Rovers – who were in European action over the weekend – and Monkstown.
Glenanne moved five points clear thanks to a 6-0 win over UCD with Shane O’Donoghue scoring a hat-trick, bringing his personal tally to eight goals in four games. The Glens have a perfect record to be the runaway leaders thus far.
Pembroke got their first point of the season following a Julian Dale-inspired performance, going up to Banbridge and grabbing a 4-4 draw. Bann led three times but Dale ultimately slapped home a fourth quarter equaliser for his hat trick, cancelling out strikes from Jonny McKee, Louis Rowe, Sam Farson and Mark Cowan.
YMCA were another side to leave it late to grab a point as they tied 2-2 with Annadale courtesy of Grant Glutz’s corner goal two minutes from the end.
They had trailed 1-0 for a long time to Robbie Davidson’s goal only to equalise in the closing quarter. Dale, however, replied through Adam McAllister in the last few minutes but it was not enough to take all the points.
In Europe, meanwhile, Three Rock’s Euro Hockey League Ranking Cup campaign ended with a share of 17th place overall. On Saturday, they scored some tasty goals against HC Minsk but showed a lack of composure at times and fell 5-4.
It led to a Sunday morning showdown with leading English club Hampstead & Westminster – featuring Olympians from Great Britain, South Africa and Ireland’s Chris Cargo as well as USA and Wales internationals – proving too strong in a 4-1 final score.
