Jersey Hockey ready to continue successful run

Monday 26 December 2016

It has been a great season both on and off the field for Jersey Hockey and after a very successful run of fundraising in 2016, building work is about to start on their new half a million pound clubhouse.

Early in the year, whilst neither men’s nor women’s first teams were able to claim back the Inter Insular trophies from Guernsey, Jersey won the fixture overall having edged the six matches on the day and success continued for the local sides.

The Women’s Over 35s side continued their good form by reaching the England Hockey Master’s Trophy final for the second successive season. Unfortunately they were once again beaten finalists, losing 1-0 to Epsom. Both men's and women's veteran sides generally performed well in the knockout competitions last season, reaching the latter stages in most age categories. Junior sides also performed well and the boy’s under 16s reached the latter stages of their regional knock-out competition in their debut season.   

Away from the Island, Jersey players continued to flourish. Beckie Middleton lifted the England Hockey Premier League title with Surbiton and Peter Millar won his first Premier League title with Wimbledon. Goalkeeper Lauren Roberts, now at Millfield School, was selected to represent England Blues at the prestigious School Games and received a silver medal following several fantastic displays.    

Junior development continued to thrive on the Island with many new young players taking up the sport and the number of coaching sessions available to them increasing. Adam Gower particularly impressed. His strong performances at Junior Regional Performance Centres (JRPC) won him a place at the High Performance Assessment Camp – and the Club say he is certainly one to keep an eye on in the future!   

Jersey continues to attract top class coaches to support their development programme.  Previously Olympic gold medal winning Great Britain goalkeeper Maddie Hinch and GB coach John Hurst provided goalkeeping coaching.  In December GB Men's captain Barry Middleton and GB Olympic gold medallist Giselle Ansley, were among four international players to visit the Island and provide masterclass coaching to junior development and adult teams.

Off the pitch, Jersey welcomed Rathbones as their new lead sponsor in September and fundraising continued towards the building of a new clubhouse at Les Quennevais. 

(Pictured: Members of the Jersey Hockey committee are joined by Grant Hamilton from sponsor Rathbones to put the first spade in the ground.)

Events such as the 24-hour Hockey-a-thon match helped raise in excess of £350k towards the project. This amount now allows building to commence in early 2017. This facility will be a fantastic addition to the sport and improve Jersey’s ability to host tournaments and visiting sides, as well as providing a social home for local players and supporters.  

England Hockey knock-out competitions resume in February and the teams remaining in their competitions will be looking to progress as far as possible.  

(Pictured: Rathbones Jersey Ladies 1st XI will be looking to progress into quarter-finals of the England Hockey Trophy when they next play in February.)

In March, Jersey will be taking six teams to Guernsey (three men’s and three women’s) for the annual Inter Insular. Whilst in August, men’s and women’s sides will be travelling to Orkney for the first time for the biennial Islands Hockey Tournament. The men will be looking to defend the title they won from Guernsey in 2015, whilst the women’s team will be looking to go one better after they were beaten finalists last time around.

Rathbones Jersey Men's 1st XI will be looking to retain the Islands Hockey Tournament in Orkney in the summer. 

The Club say they've had a lot of interest in hockey locally since Team GB's women won gold in Rio and there are now almost 600 team members playing across the Island.