2024 has been a fantastic year for our performance squads.
Wales’ senior men have had an impressive year. We witnessed two victorious international campaigns against Scotland and Austria alongside a fantastic European Qualifier campaign which saw a number of players achieve impressive milestones.
Across the year, seven young players were awarded their first senior international caps with further milestones including Owain Dolan Gray collecting his 150th international cap and Alf Dinnie celebrating his 50th cap for Wales.
Senior Men’s captain Ben Francis summarised the year by commenting:
“It’s been a very positive year leading the senior men’s group. It’s been great seeing younger players join the squad, get their first experience of international hockey and put in big performances in test series wins. I believe we have set ourselves up well for what is going to be an exciting 2025.
From a personal perspective it is an honour and a privilege to captain the senior men, something you dream of as a child growing up playing hockey in Wales.”
Similarly, Wales Women have been able to continue their positive momentum this year. This summer saw us welcome Malaysia to the National Hockey Centre for a home summer series. Rachel Goodwin, Lily Roberts, Ava Dempsey, Freya Diamond and Caitlin Witham all made their debut in Cardiff, gaining their first cap on home soil.
The squad were also able to secure a place in the final of the Euro Qualifiers in Glasgow 2024, where we narrowly lost out to hosts Scotland. We also celebrated further milestones, with Ella Jackson and Emily Rowlands gaining their 50th caps.
Senior Women’s Captain Beth Bingham commented:
“Overall as a squad we’ve had a really positive 12 months. The team have jelled together quickly and played some exciting, attacking hockey. Most notably, in the series win over Malaysia in August where 5 of the team received their first caps.
Looking ahead to 2025, I’m excited to see what this talented group can achieve.”
In recent years, there has been a real focus on the performance pathways at Hoci Cymru, and it is great to see the reward of that hard work with a strong number of players smoothly transitioning between our junior and senior international programmes.
Meanwhile, the U21s squads also had a great year of development. The women had one of their most successful cycles to date, including winning Gold at the Euros in Czech Republic last July alongside qualifying for both the Junior World Cup and A division Europeans. Whilst the men faced quality test series against England, a fantastic Tri Nations event against Ireland and Scotland and their European Championships in Switzerland alongside many training camps.
Our National Age Group squads all had a large variety of activity this year, providing a fantastic opportunity to build foundations ahead of an exciting 2025 for junior hockey.
Both U18 squads faced competitive Easter series against Ulster and Canada before facing England in May. They then went head-to-head with some top hockey nations in the summer including Holland, Spain and Ireland. Challenges which will have stretched and developed them in preparations for the 2025 U18 EuroHockey Championships II.
Our U16 players got a first taste of international hockey with the new 5s format, a test series against Switzerland at Easter was followed by U16 EuroHockey Championships 5s in the summer. Another great opportunity to expose our players to international hockey and tournament experience.
The success of our senior players also extended beyond our Welsh borders with five senior players making appearances for the Great Britain Squad. Toby Reynolds-Cotterill secured more GB caps at the FIH Pro League, Gareth Furlong officially made the centralised squad and joined Sarah Jones, Jacob Draper and Rupert Shipperley at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Furthermore, Owen Sutton and Betsan Thomas secured their places in the GB Elite Development Programme with Millie Holme, Fred Newbold and Rebecca Daniel all graduating from the programme to be offered contracts in the centralised GB training programme for 2025.
The future for our performance teams certainly looks bright.
Comments