Despite the searing heat in Tokyo, Great Britain men’s and women’s teams have yet to employ their Olympics reserves, with many teams being able to do so after competition rules were relaxed.
Ahead of Team GB playing against both Netherlands teams on Thursday, Danny Kerry and Mark Hager, the GB men’s and women’s coaches respectively, have yet to field Alan Forsyth and Harry Martin, or Amy Costello and Sarah Evans, in their three Pool games, while competing nations also have the option to include a spare goalkeeper.
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Channeling the spirit of Barcelona 1992, Spain’s women secured their first victory in Tokyo under tricky circumstances.
Their British coach Adrian Lock is stuck in his hotel room, unable to communicate face to face, after he tested positive in the antigen control test ahead of their opening 3-1 defeat to Australia on Sunday.
The talent pool in the Pidcock family runs deep, after a stunning week in which pro cyclist Tom became Great Britain’s first mountain bike Olympic champion.
Tom and his younger brother Joe, also a professional cyclist, are close to their cousins Jack and Cole, who are talented hockey players taking after their father Justin, who played for England at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and won a bronze medal.
Cheshire-based Cole has been on the fringes of the England under 18s and is playing in the Futures Cup for the Pennine Pumas in August.
Justin said his son’s “studious” approach and the Tom Pidcock effect could see his Olympic dream play out one day.
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ALASTAIR WHATLEY, a late and passionate convert but now fully invested in hockey, on the sport’s need to get on the front foot and let people know that we expect more
“I can’t understand why hockey isn’t more of a thing. It’s such a brilliant game #Olympics”
This was a tweet from the broadcaster Rev. Richard Coles following the GB men’s win over South Africa on Saturday.
His tweet followed a game that featured the sight of Sam Ward throwing his arms open in celebration as he hammered in a drag flick to send GB 1-0 up and opening the team’s account at these Tokyo Olympics.
It also marked one of the great sporting comebacks. Ward’s journey over these past few years is nothing short of an inspiration and a great example of what a positive can-do, never-give-up attitude can lead to.
And stories, as a theatre director and producer, are my day job. Much as I wish I could claim I’d played a high level of hockey, I came to it late after a brief, failed flirtation at school in 2018, aged 35. I moved to North London and having given up acting on the stage (much to the relief of many), found my weekends free and missing the camaraderie of an acting company.
I found Southgate Hockey Club, in the beautiful environs of Trent Park, just down the road and began to fall quickly in love with this fast paced, hugely challenging game.
After a few months of largely just running about in circles on the pitch and falling over, I came down to watch our men’s 1s. The game was electric, the pace, the skill, the physicality and the precision made great theatre, a great spectacle. I didn’t know who any of the players were or the ins and outs of what was going on.
But I marvelled at the fact that it was free to watch and furthermore that I was given some port and cheese at half-time. Above all I wondered why more people weren’t there. I’ve endured plenty of long evenings of some pretty dreadful plays all over the country to much bigger crowds. I wondered where everyone was.
So I became a one man travelling support club and ventured off with my newly acquired Southgate beanie hat and scarf and visited other clubs all over the south east and found similar stories. A hardcore rump of home spectators stoically cheering on their teams, a few parents and girlfriends… and me.
Yet it seemed that these teams, just one division shy of the top league in the country, were playing these games to an audience to smaller crowds than a non league football game, in some cases much smaller.
Until I found The Hockey Paper I also struggled to find any coverage of the sport. Even our top club sides seemed to be playing their games in a vacuum, the story of that 2019/2020 season seemed impenetrable at first to a newcomer at least.
Only recently having forked out the subscription to BT Sport to watch the EuroHockey Championships I sought out a batch of national papers to read the match reports, previews and analysis from the games. England were playing in the semi-finals, in a major hockey tournament just across the channel. Yet frankly, aside again from this publication, there wasn’t much going on over social media and certainly nothing I’d heard on the radio or TV. Surely it would be reported somewhere … or perhaps even anywhere.
I searched across the national papers and found not even the result listed let alone a report. It seems hockey has simply been left out or worse, forgotten against the bigger stories of other high profile sports that battle for column inches.
We are now in the throes of an Olympic Games and our GB women and men are battling it out against the world’s top sides for Olympic glory – a chance to become legends to a whole new generation.
The Olympics are probably the single best opportunity the sport has to reach a wider audience, yet as things stand the coverage is patchy at best, the BBC battling a distribution deal with Discovery + meaning they have limited space and with it hockey largely being shunted off to being played behind a paywall on Eurosport, often it seems without even commentary.
The BBC has trimmed down on Olympic coverage for 2021 PIC: BBC
Games played in an empty stadium seemingly heading out into a void. Not much we can do about the Tokyo time difference, but combine the lack of air time and the time difference and it’s not making it easy to follow unless you really want to seek it out and make a night or early morning of it. Hopefully as the tournament gathers momentum things will pick up.
I suspect hockey’s lack of coverage in the mainstream media is an old story, but the dearth of good Olympic coverage on the BBC seems emblematic of a wider issue facing the sport. But what can we do about it?
Perhaps we could start by doing more to tell our stories better, both individually and collectively. Maybe there’s a modesty, reserve or even embarrassment in thinking in those terms.
Regardless, it requires a concerted effort to promote hockey in the UK, to sell the game and to tell the myriad of stories that swirl around every game of hockey that is played. Without people telling those stories we simply end up playing these great games of hockey to an increasingly insular and potentially dwindling audience.
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Of course there are numerous reasons why our sport struggles to regularly find itself on the front pages, or indeed any pages. Many people for many years have spent time, money and energy getting more attention onto the sport.
Here at Southgate we are investing in new ways to find a wider audience. We are fortunate to have a large diaspora across the world unable to regularly make it back to the club.
We are keen to find ways of streaming games online to reach more people and introduce our club to a wider audience. On paper, at least it’s an achievable task, especially with some of our top sides leading the way with streams posted on England Hockey seeing tens of thousands of hits. Yet there remains resistance. Rights to games held by England Hockey, coaches understandably cautious or unwilling to reveal tactics and share games publicly, especially when not all clubs are following suit, and of course the expense of the whole enterprise.
Southgate will host the Y1 Championship finale PIC: Simon Parker
Let alone trying to do it well enough to entice people to watch more than 10 minutes of fuzzy interference from a single camera feed.
Just last week I went down to The Oval and watched the first Hundred game. The ECB had thrown the cat and the kitchen sink at the event which featured more fireworks and more branding than they knew what to do with. I’m not sure they have reinvented the wheel, but they have at least given that wheel a good seeing to. And in so doing secured major TV coverage and the biggest crowd for a domestic women’s cricket game this country has ever seen.
“If you build it they will come” – so said Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams. And there is nothing wrong with a bit of dreaming – maybe we can all look to Ward’s example as he continues to find the Olympic backboard in Tokyo, because sport is some of the best theatre we have.
It is a place where dreams come true, hearts are broken and heroes are made. Hockey is full of these stories at every club up and down the country, in games big and small and in the potential of our young players who can be inspired by the likes of our own GB heroes in Tokyo.
In the short term let’s try and beat the drum a bit louder for these Games. And each time they wake people like the Rev Coles to the joy of our game. Above all else we have to champion our own sport, read and support the one paper we do have (this one) and get on the front foot and let people know that we expect more.
If we don’t speak together nothing will change, great games of hockey played with nobody to hear or see them.
Alastair Whatley is secretary at Southgate Hockey Club
So to Thursday. Speak to any GB player and they will tell you that the Tokyo 2020 squad is vastly different from the Rio 2016 vintage. Creating new stories and all that. After all, five years and plenty of retirements have passed since they beat the might of the Netherlands to Olympic gold.
To underline their powerhouse status in the women’s game, there have been just three defeats (including one non-competitive) in that time under coach Alyson Annan.
Both Holland (5-0 over South Africa) and GB (4-1 against India) enjoyed victories on Tuesday, while the world No.1 Dutch will still be overwhelming favourites to come through their Pool stage clash.
With both teams looking set for the quarter-finals, Thursday’s double bill (GB men will also play the Oranje) will still be a tester for what may lie ahead deeper in the competition.
For now, Great Britain will hope to find more success from their corner routines and circle penetration, which has been a worry in recent tournaments. India certainly had their chances, but could only score one from eight, Britain scoring a solitary strike from six.
GB were indebted to Hannah Martin for a first-half double, before Lily Owsley and a late penalty stroke from Grace Balsdon handed Mark Hager’s side back-to-back victories.
“Momentum’s key,” said Martin. “This back-to-back win is brilliant for us. As a squad, we are hoping to take this momentum forward into the Dutch game tomorrow.”
GB secured back-to-back victories following India win PIC: Alyson Annan PIC: Worldsportpics/ GB Hockey
Indian coach Sjoerd Marijne described defeat as their “worst match”, with the Eves now needing to win their last two matches.
He said: “We always try to play for a six (out of 10) for each individual, and I don’t think each individual today played for a six. Bad decisions, bad choices and I’m pretty disappointed by this.”
Meanwhile, Holland notched another easy win, this time against South Africa in hot conditions.
Frederique Matla scored after a Lidewij Welten assist, before the Dutch opened their arms after the break. Matla set the tone as she doubled up before further goals from Maria Verschoor, Felice Albers and Marloes Keetels.
Verschoor said: “I think we’re growing into the tournament. In the first match it felt a little bit nervous. We’re trying to grow every game and focus on our own game.
“I think we can still do better, but I’m also really glad with how we played today. We just kept on going, kept on passing the game, so really excited for the next two games to come.”
TOKYO — Surely the three points will arrive during these Games for the hosts as Japan men kept their Olympic quarter-final chances alive with a 2-2 draw against New Zealand on Tuesday, writes Richard Bright.
Playing in their first Olympic Games since Mexico City 1968, Japan picked up their first point of the tournament on the back of another superb performance from star forward Tanaka Kenta, who scored a brilliant individual goal and had a shot saved in the final minutes to be denied a winner.
“I’m so upset for him,” Japan coach Siegfried Aikman said of his talisman, who plays for HGC.
“He did everything and at the end he was a bit unlucky (not to score the winner) and now he feels guilty. And he shouldn’t.
“He showed yamato-damashii; akiramenai spirit. He’s a real samurai. I’m proud to be his coach.”
The draw puts Japan fifth in pool A with two matches remaining, against Spain and India.
As far as team performances go, this one was up there with Japan’s opening night showing against Australia where they came back from 2-0 down in the second quarter to lead 3-2 before the Kookaburras prevailed.
“I’m so proud. It gives me goosebumps,” Aikman said of the way Japan are playing at Tokyo 2020.
“I would love to see the guys win the matches. But again we have to deserve it and tomorrow against Spain is another chance.”
“Happy with the win. Still think four goals against is too much,” Alexander Hendrickx said after scoring his second hat-trick of the tournament.
“Offensively we played really well. South Africa have quick players and a long high ball, so I think we got caught out a few times. Credit to them that they scored four, but for us, it’s not good enough.”
Looking at Tuesday’s late matches at the Oi Stadium, one sensed that Canada and South Africa were going to be no push overs against two of world hockey’s powerhouses.
And so it proved.
The scorelines may not have justified the outcomes – Belgium beating South Africa 9-4 and Holland edging Canada 4-2 – but spirit shone through for Pool B’s bottom nations.
Arthur Van Doren, got his 200th cap in the hammering of South Africa, but this was another madcap match, the Red Lions 7-3 to the good at half-time, while the Cassiem brothers had another fine day with three goals between them.
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Rio 2016 gold medallist Nicola White announced her international retirement from hockey on Monday night – with an emotional statement surrounding the concussion that forced her to quit.
For all the elation in Rio when Team GB’s women won hockey gold with 10 million watching on TV, the flipside was the post competition lull – multiple retirements, while in 2020 semi-final double goalscorer Alex Danson called it a day owing to concussion-related injuries.
For Hampstead & Westminster’s White, 33, after a life-changing concussion in March 2018 when she hit her head on a player’s shoulder during a friendly against Ireland and then spent 20 months toiling to return to the fold, the decision was made for her in November 2020 when GB Hockey did a u-turn, effectively ending the forward’s hopes of reaching Tokyo.
“My head injury and subsequent prolonged recovery have been the hardest years of my life,” White, who made her debut in 2009 and racked up 186 caps including winning bronze in 2012, wrote on Twitter.
💔 HOCKEY STATEMENT
With courage & openness, today I put closure to my international hockey career after 10 special years 💫
It's not how I hoped it would end but I gave it everything & I am proud of my continued honesty!
“But I never gave up hope I would play hockey again,” she added, having been removed from the GB programme in December 2019 as she was told “the door remains open” for a potential return.
White did return for Hampstead & Westminster in August 2020, a proud moment in her career, but the joy was short lived after an international return was ruled out.
“The support I once enjoyed from GB Hockey disappeared and by consequence, I have been given no opportunity to be reconsidered to reclaim the place I held in the programme for 10 years.
“What is bewildering is that, just seven months before this decision (in November 2020), I was given a return to play for rejoining the programme towards Tokyo 2020, which I couldn’t wait to begin.
“The subsequent news that the Olympics were delayed by a year gave countless opportunities to see if a return was viable through a variety of means available.
“Since then, despite my physical readiness to rebuild and optimistic outlook regarding what could be achieved, I have been denied any form of fitness test, hockey trial, rescheduled return to play, or any objective targets by GB Hockey.
“I was simply informed last summer that they had changed their minds and that they wanted no further conversations with me.”
Former Hockeyroo Anna Flanagan voiced her support for White on Twitter as did former teammate Jennie Bimson.
Wow thank you for sharing! We had this too unfortunately… false hope is such a killer 😞 5 years later the whole staff group who did this have been sacked/ forced out. Congrats on your career though, it gets better ❤️
White said she would now pour her energy into coaching, inspiring future generations and ensuring athletes’ mental and physical health is prioritised.
“Although I now suffer the consequences of my head injury, I am committed to address and highlight those issues that rose with GB Hockey in an effort to endeavour to improve the care for myself and the safety of others.
“I am proud that I acted throughout with passion, transparency and integrity.
“It may take some time to fully appreciate my career given this bitter ending. However, I know deep down the gratitude and pride that sits inside and the powerful impact hockey has had throughout my life, which I am sure will continue.”
Leon and Jeremy Hayward will provide a unique sporting rivalry of their own when Australia and New Zealand line up in the men’s Olympics hockey tournament on Wednesday.
Leon plays in goal for the Black Sticks while forward Jeremy, with goals in the last two matches, will be looking to contribute to Australia’s scoring spree for the highly-fancied Kookaburras.
There’s no love lost between the pair clearly and Leon – who has played for Australia in the past but qualifies to play for NZ due to his Mum Ellie’s Dunedin roots – brought his parents into the matter to settle it once and for all.
“New Zealand,” was his response to the New Zealand Herald when asked who his parents would be cheering for.
“They go for Jeremy but they obviously like New Zealand a bit better.”
Owing to strict Covid protocols the pair, perhaps for the best, have been kept apart.
Although they are likely to both face each other, with Jeremy a short corner specialist facing up to the Kiwi goal.
“I think I saw him for about two minutes and from about two-and-a-half metres away. That was kind of it,” said Leon, whose teammate Blair Tarrant agreed with the Hayward parents’ wisdom.
“Not much will be said but we’ve got the better Hayward so we’ll leave it at that.”
Defeats to Netherlands and Germany have left India rock bottom of Pool A but their Dutch coach Sjoerd Marijne can see a glimmer of hope against defending champions Great Britain women at the Tokyo Olympics.
GB also lost their opener before improving in their second Olympics run out in Tokyo, and according to Marijne will need to be at their Rio best to see off the improving Asian outfit.
“The results will come. We’re taking the good things from this match (2-0 loss against Germany) and also we have to say ‘OK, what can we improve?’
“I think already we were better than against Netherlands. But it’s tough to start against the two best teams in the world.
“I’m happy that we really can cope with them, that’s my feeling. In ball possession, non-ball possession, we’re not just giving the balls away. I’m happy with our speed, I’m happy with our fitness (and) I really feel this is not the end. There’s much more for us coming up.”
The Rio gold medallists have arrived in Japan well under the radar after more top billing for 2012 and 2016, something Izzy Petter thinks suits them anyway.
“I think a lot of teams see us as a bit of an underdog. They don’t expect much from us from previous results but we’re one to watch, for sure.”
The forward said she thought India could provide a confidence boost if GB can start firing on all cylinders.
“We had about 10 corners (in the 4-1 win against South Africa) and it felt like we were all over the Germans. We just need to put away our chances and just keep grinding it out.”
