England Hockey. Annual Report

Transcription

1 England Hockey 2007 Annual Report

2 Contents Title Foreword from the President Foreword from the President 2 3 Introduction from the 5 7 Executive Chairman The Single System progress 8 10 EuroHockey Nations Championships the Europeans This year has seen yet further significant progress by England Hockey, so much so that it is easy to forget that the new organisation is still less than five years old. My thanks and congratulations go to the Executive Directors, the Non Executive Directors, all the staff, and of course the hundred or so volunteers who serve at national level and the thousands running the sport throughout the country. Last year we reported that we had received plaudits for our arrangements in November 2006 for hosting the Congress of the International Hockey Federation (FIH). This success, the improved performances of our teams on the field of play, and our successful hosting in Manchester, cemented our rightful position back on the international stage. This was confirmed by the award to England Hockey of the prestigious Pablo Negre Trophy. This is awarded by the FIH to the National Association worldwide which has by its activities, initiatives and sportsmanship served best the course of hockey and made it more popular during the past two years. Bring more young people into the sport Develop our thriving club structure Progress has continued on the implementation of the Single System and during the year we saw the recruitment of 12 new Development Officers whose role on the ground is crucial in terms of its implementation. The building blocks of the Single System are slowly but surely being put in place; it is however a five-year journey of change for the sport, but one we are convinced will pay huge dividends in the long run. Well done to all! Achieve international success at the highest level Improve the sport s communications and profile Work also began on new Membership Services initiatives and the installation of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system; both will improve the way we are able to interact and communicate with the tens of thousands of individuals in clubs, be they administrators, coaches, umpires, officials or players. We are extremely grateful to Centrica s British Gas subsidiary for their project management support on the CRM system project. Martin Gotheridge President Develop a broader income 34 base England Hockey Sponsors 35 and Partners Efficient and effective governance and operations Financial Accounts Meet the England Hockey 42 staff team Committee Structure 43 Photo Credits Grant Treeby Dave Cooper After successful 2006 World Cups the men (5th) and women (7th) both faced different challenges in their respective Champions Challenges (for teams ranked 7 12 in the world). The women came away with bronze from Baku in Azerbaijan and then followed this up with another bronze at Manchester in the EuroHockey Nations Championships (Europeans) thus qualifying Great Britain (GB) directly for the Beijing Olympic Games. Our congratulations go to all the players and staff. The under 18 girls did well too, gaining gold in Edinburgh in their European competition; well done to them. The men fared less well, coming 4th in Boom in Belgium at their Champions Challenge and 5th at Manchester, thus missing out on direct qualification; the under 18 boys came 4th at their Europeans. The performance team now has the responsibility of qualifying the GB men for Beijing and delivering success for both teams there; we wish them well. They also have England duties to continue for the senior A teams, the new indoor teams, and the various age groups. The Europeans were staged by us in Manchester with great success thanks to the tremendous hard work and enthusiasm of staff and volunteers and we were proud and pleased to welcome for the first time, on the final day, our new Royal Patron the Countess of Wessex. There is a special section on the Europeans on pages 12 15; suffice to say we were extremely pleased with the way it turned out. The England Hockey Board From left to right: Nick Chilton, Martin Gotheridge, Chris Darling, David Faulkner, Sally Munday, Ben Rea, Andy Tapley, Barry Snellgrove, Sue Catton, Philip Kimberley, Ian Wilson Page England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page

3 Introduction from the Executive Chairman 2007 saw the final stages of the rebuilding of England Hockey, culminating with the successful hosting of the Europeans in Manchester in August. The event undoubtedly dominated activity in the organisation and a special section deals with it later in this report. However, staff and volunteers continued with routine work throughout the year and my thanks must go to all who coped with what was undoubtedly a demanding year. Your Board continued to meet every other month to progress the development of the sport, with the Executive Directors meeting alternate months to the Board. This year saw Nick Chilton join the Board, replacing Jon Potter who did not stand for re-election due to work pressures. Richard Leman was elected to the Executive Board of the British Olympic Association. He has also just been elected President of Great Britain Hockey Limited, and as a consequence has resigned as a Non Executive Director of England Hockey. Our congratulations and thanks go to him for his work with us over the past few years. We were delighted to announce earlier in the year that the Countess of Wessex was to be our Royal Patron. Her Royal Highness charmed all who met her in Manchester when she presented the men s trophy to Holland, met both England teams, and presented Barry Middleton and Anne Panter with awards for England players of the tournament. HIGHLIGHTS OF 2007 Whilst the year was dominated by the Europeans, much else was achieved in day-today activities; details follow later in this report. In summary: Substantial progress was made in detailing various elements of the Single System (LTAD) with the Regional and County Hockey Associations. Work progressed on the Junior Development, Academy, and Performance Centres, and the new junior competition structure. Twelve Development Officers were recruited and inducted to support the Single System s delivery and deliver other key objectives. They replaced a number of the part-time Hockey Development Officers as the Active Sports funding wound down. A second successful indoor finals day was held at Birmingham s NIA with live Sky TV coverage. Planning for hosting of the European indoors championships at Sheffield began, which will see England s re-entry into international indoor hockey; squads were selected as part of their 2012 pathway development. This year was the first of Slazenger s sponsorship of the various national squads and the England Hockey League (EHL); much of the money for the latter was used in reduced entry fees for clubs. Schools competitions also saw the benefit of the first year of the Man Group Plc sponsorship in reduced entry fees, and matched funding was obtained from the National Sports Foundation for the first two years of the majority of the sponsorship. The previous year s Community Club Development Programme (CCDP) money resulted in 27 clubs upgrading their facilities to the tune of 1.18m with money sourced by England Hockey from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Chris Jensen joined as Membership Services Manager and is making good progress on developing the principles of a new personal membership scheme. The year also saw the loan of Nicola Dawson from Centrica Plc s British Gas under the British Olympic Association s FTSE 100 partnership scheme, to project manage the installation of our new CRM system. Excellent progress is being made here. Two new websites one for the Europeans, the other for Great Britain Hockey Ltd were designed and launched, and major progress made on redesigning the main England Hockey website. Broadband streaming of the Europeans was set up and proved highly popular; this is being further developed as part of the forthcoming personal membership scheme. At the performance end of the sport, an initial four National Performance Centres (NPCs) were appointed, and 28 Centrally Contracted Coaches (CCCs) were selected and underwent training sessions. They themselves have already run 10 coaching sessions with regional and club coaches with nearly 200 attending. Final appointments were made to the performance team with the recruitment of Jane Powell as Performance Coaching Manager and Craig Parnham to the women s programme. This year saw our activities as GB s Nominated Country (NC) really lift with the GB Youth women s and men s teams successfully competing in the Australian Youth Olympics (winning gold and silver respectively), the organisation of the first GB Super League and the assessment and selection of the senior GB squads. The Olympic year is demanding for several England Hockey staff with their dual England and GB duties. Finally, we saw further progress in strengthening our balance sheet with reserves in sight of 1m; our target is to hold six months of non performance expenditure as reserves. It was also gratifying that we won our battle with HM Revenue & Customs regarding the corporation tax issue highlighted in last year s report. The provision made in last year s accounts has been released this year. HOCKEY COMPARED TO OTHER SPORTS Hockey is one of many sports that obtain funding to run their affairs from Sport England for grassroots (development) activities, and UK Sport for performance (elite) activities; these two government quangos are entirely separate organisations. Most second tier sports rely very significantly on such funding in the absence of the TV rights incomes that the large spectator sports receive. England Hockey has grown significantly since 2003 when the organisation was set up following the demise of the EHA particularly now that the performance activities have been reintegrated. We now employ 64 staff and have an income and expenditure of about 6m (excluding major events like the Europeans). We also contract with the many coaches who work with the various England squads at under 16, 18 and 21 levels and the CCCs; in some cases they are one and the same. Last, but by no means least there are about 100 volunteers who work at national level on the various committees which are listed at the end of this report. Running a national sport is a complex business much more so than people would believe it to be. We are similar in terms of income/expenditure and staffing to Badminton, Netball, Squash, and Table Tennis but smaller than Rowing, Cycling and Sailing, and very much smaller than Athletics and Swimming (whose incomes Page 4 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page 5

4 are three to four times ours). The big four spectator sports Rugby Union, Cricket and Tennis all are much bigger again; then there is Football! We mention these points because we are all tasked with doing the same jobs in our respective sports but with vastly different resources at our disposal. We are also in competition with these and many other sports and leisure pursuits in terms of attracting and keeping participants in the sport, obtaining facility investment, and gaining media space and sponsorship. With more than 100,000 participants over the age of 16, we have similar numbers to Boxing, Weightlifting, Table Tennis and Netball, but much fewer than Squash (500,000), Badminton and Tennis (900,000 each). The team sports are dominated by Football (2.9 million), Cricket (380,000) and Rugby Union (268,000) though we have about the same as Rugby League. These figures were from Sport England s Active People survey hockey was listed at number 30 of recreational pursuits and sports but comes about number 15 of pure sports; this may come as a surprise to some. WHERE THE ENGLAND HOCKEY STAFF TEAM IS DEPLOYED We are fortunate in the grant funding we now receive. Although we don t know what levels of funding will be available from 2009 to 2012 we are led to believe it will be stable. As an organisation we have four teams: Development, which supports the sport at grassroots level: 33 people Performance, whose focus is international success: 14 people Membership Services competitions & events, marketing, PR & communications: 7 people Finance and administration: 9 people And then there is me, in a part-time role. Development is led by Sally Munday and she has four national managers. Anne Baker Coaching (to Level 3), Jane Nockolds Umpiring, Officials, Facilities and Volunteers, and Amanda Partington Schools and Education, develop and set policy in their respective areas, lead curricula development, and liaise with external agencies e.g. Sports Coach UK, the National Programme Umpires Association, and the British University Sports Association. Each individual works with a variety of expert volunteer committees, e.g. Coaching and Umpiring. The fourth national manager is Steve Floyd, who is responsible for implementation of the Single System and leading our five regional offices which support the County and Regional Hockey Associations around the country and the 1,000 or so clubs that affiliate to England Hockey. These regional teams organise and oversee the courses for training 3,000+ coaches, teachers and officials every year, run leadership courses, support club grant applications, etc. This is where the recent Development Officer recruitment (12 roles) occurred, to replace much of the Active Sports resource. Half the organisation s headcount is employed in development of grassroots activities. The Performance team is led by David Faulkner. Its remit is to identify the talent for and to run the England under 16, 18, 21 and senior squads for both genders. The challenges are huge, particularly with the 2012 Olympics only four and a half years away. Our world rankings at senior international level don t lie. For each gender we have only been in the top four in the world once in the last 20 years 1988 for the men and 1992 for the women. Our current rankings are 8th (men) and 10th (women). The Performance team s income is nearly all from UK Sport and is ring fenced for elite activities. It is spent on camps, competitive preparation and tournaments, staff and consultants, athlete support, sports science and sports medicine, etc. The team also manage the 28 CCCs who are working with the Regional Hockey Associations and key clubs to raise standards at the age group level, and the four National Performance Centres to support the age group level. Then there is the complexity of GB. As the Nominated Country (NC) to qualify GB for the Olympics and lead the assessment and selection process and actual running of the GB squads, our senior performance staff wear two hats England and GB and they carry it off incredibly well. It is not easy being the NC! Barry Snellgrove leads the Membership Services team and handles sponsors/ suppliers, the broadband project and media contacts. He has Stephen Barlow running events and competitions. This small team runs the Slazenger EHL, the 27 knock out competitions, the indoor EHL and finals day, and schedule all competition activity e.g. the priority list. They also work on major events like the Europeans, which have a two to three year planning horizon. Jo Baker is PR and Communications Manager and she runs the England and GB websites (and the European s website), designs and puts EH News together, and issues all England and GB media releases. She also supports internal staff design needs. Finally there is the new Membership Services role: Chris Jensen is working to improve club benefits and is designing a new personal membership scheme. Ian Wilson heads up the Finance and Administration team. As an organisation we handle about 40,000 transactions a year and have the complexity of multiple VAT rates and foreign exchange issues with the overseas tours of the performance team. The administration team supports the rest of head office mailing out coaching and umpiring information, EH News, affiliation and AGM content the list is extensive (tens of thousands of documents a year). They also deal with the thousands of incoming enquires from schools, clubs, students, counties, regions, etc. Last but by no means least in this team is Alison Hogg, who heads up Equity, Ethics, Doping and Welfare, another complex portfolio, particularly in Child Welfare. We run England Hockey as we would a business; it is after all just that. All staff work to deliver our long-term strategic objectives: Bring more young people into the sport Develop our thriving club infrastructure Achieve international success at the highest level Improve communications and profile Broaden our income base Have effective/efficient governance/ operations Each year we produce a detailed operating plan and budget and each staff member is set objectives and their performance is appraised against them. We are very conscious that we are spending both club affiliation fees and taxpayers money, and that our stakeholders should feel we are doing a good job. We look forward to receiving feedback face to face either at the AGM or forthcoming road shows. Before we report progress against our objectives we provide reports on the Single System and the Europeans. Philip Kimberley Executive Chairman Page 6 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page 7

5 The Single System progress Readers of our 2006 Annual report will know that after extensive consultation over a two-year period, the Board approved the implementation plan of the Single System in July Since then the Development and Performance staff have been working together with Regional & County Associations and other partners, to roll out the different elements of the Single System framework. An update on progress against each element is given below. U18 PATHWAY (starting at the bottom of the diagram) Club School Links U18 Player Pathway National Squads U16 & U18 Junior Regional Performance Centre (JRPC) U14, U15, U16, U17 only 12 centres nationally Junior Academy Centre (JAC) U13, U14, U15, U16 only Approximately 42 centres nationally Junior Development Centre (JDC) U12, U13, U14, U15, U16 only Approximately 130 centres nationally School-Club Link Approximately 400 nationally We currently have about 30,000 young people playing in our hockey clubs! Clubs linking with schools and School Sports Partnerships are key to ensuring that the first stepping stone is easy for young people who want to get more regular hockey outside of their school environment. Single System Pathway Junior Section or Club Approximately 400 nationally C l u b s 18+ Player Pathway National Squads U21 & Senior National Performance Centre (NPC) U19-U24 up to six centres nationally Senior Regional Performance Centre (SRPC) U18, U19, U21, U21 Approximately 20 centres nationally Senior Club Approximately 1050 nationally FE / HE - Club Link Approximately 80 nationally Thanks to the hard work of many clubs, at the end of 2007 there were 115 clubs which had achieved their Clubs 1st Accreditation and over half of these clubs have signed agreements to develop more opportunities with School Sports Partnerships. Of these, 27 clubs have benefited from facility investment in the last few years through the Club Community Development Programme (CCPD) fund. Junior Development Centres (JDC) and Junior Academy Centres (JAC) These centres will provide coaching for young players aged at sub county level (JDC) and at county level (JAC). These centres will provide more coaching closer to home. The Development team has been working with our County Hockey Associations (CHAs) and the County Sports Partnerships (CSPs) and most of our CHAs are well advanced in putting together development plans that include setting up 130 JDCs and over 40 JACs across the country. Pilot centres are being rolled out over the next 18 months in the majority of counties, with the intention that centres will be operational across the whole country from July England Hockey has accessed over 1.5 million from Sport England s Club and Coach Fund over the next three years to help the CHAs put these new centres in place. Junior Regional Performance Centres (JRPCs) Our Regional Hockey Associations (RHA) have been key in moving this area of work forward. Three representatives from each RHA met several times with a working group from England Hockey, including the Development and Performance Directors, to plan the running of these centres. 12 locations have been chosen to provide coaching for players aged and in 2008 a tendering process will be used to allow clubs and other providers to bid to host these centres in the locations chosen. The centres will be piloted in or around these locations by the regions during 2008, with all centres planned to be formally in place for July Players will receive regular coaching from both RHA and England Hockey s CCCs, leading to a High Performance Assessment Camp for U14 and U16s and inter JRPC competition at U15 and U17 age groups, which will replace the current regional tournaments from The exact competition format is to be agreed with the RHAs in January The move to 12 centres with England Hockey coaches involved at these centres will ensure young people have coaching closer to home and that they are assessed for representing their country on an ongoing basis rather than purely at the regional tournament, which is mostly the case now. U16 and U18 international teams An update on our international teams is in the section on achieving international success at the highest level (page 29). 18+ PATHWAY (starting at the bottom of the diagram) Senior Clubs and links with Further and Higher Education Whilst the sport continues to grow steadily nationally, we see continued mergers where clubs are seeing the benefit of sharing resources both in terms of facilities, volunteers and hockey expertise. We have been working with BUSA (who next year merge with British Colleges) to develop a plan for better integration of university teams and participants. In 2008 we will evolve this plan into guidance for clubs to link with Further and Higher Education establishments. Senior Regional Performance Centres This is the safety net that will allow late developers or new people to the sport to achieve their potential. The plan is to have 20 of these centres in place across the country. Planning for delivering this element has not yet started and they will not be available until National Performance Centres (NPCs) Following an extensive open and transparent tendering process in which over 30 higher education establishments applied, England Hockey have appointed four NPCs to date. These centres will provide daily contact/ coaching for our top 100 players aged 18 23, who will combine their training with education or employment. East Midlands, Hockey West, South Coast and Yorkshire are the appointed centres with three other possible centres Page 8 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page

6 General Hockey Highlights in 2007 Single System continued currently under discussion. The first three centres will be live from September 2008 and Yorkshire from September National Squads An update on our international teams is included in the achieving international success at the highest level section (page 28). Centralised Calendar, Coaching and Talent ID syllabus To enable all of the above to work we have also drafted a centralised calendar to ensure that young people are not pulled in different directions by the different groups they play for school, club, county, etc. This draft calendar will be available for consultation in spring 2008 and then a final version will be published in summer 2008 for implementation from July 2009 to ensure schools, clubs, County and Regional Associations have a season s notice before implementation. skills and experience to reach our potential! The important point to stress here is that England Hockey wants all involved in the sport to be able to reach their potential whether that potential is at school/club or international level and also to provide for coaches, officials and administrators in the sport as well as players. The Single System uses current examples of good practice and looks to roll these out nationwide. The Institute of Youth Sport continue research for us on identifying talent in hockey and this work will underpin the coaching syllabus and talent identification protocols. Work on this is ongoing. The underpinning principle of the Single System is that we should take a long-term view of a player s development. Research undertaken in the arts and sport, including hockey, concluded that it takes 9 10 years of deliberate practice to become an expert performer. The complexities of hockey as a sport require that players learn core skills, then how to apply them in game situations, a constantly changing environment. This demands good decision making, often within the context of team tactics. Then there are aspects of fitness and psychology that also contribute to performance. It is not surprising, then, that it takes years of practice to gain the Page 10 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page 11

7 EuroHockey Nations Championships the Europeans Our hosting of the men s and women s Europeans, the first event of its size held in England since the 1986 World Cup, had a number of objectives: To raise the profile of the sport in England by giving spectators a positive experience and ensuring wide media coverage. To provide home advantage to the England teams in their quest to qualify on behalf of GB for the Beijing Olympics. To ensure our funding partners gained positively from contributing to the event. To demonstrate to the international hockey community our capability of hosting major events. To provide a positive experience for staff and volunteers alike. To ensure the event was well managed financially and England Hockey s investment well founded. Manchester s Belle Vue was deemed the only facility in the country (with its two waterbased pitches, building infrastructure, sufficient space for a decent village, and easy access) suitable for the hosting of the event. SPECTATOR EXPERIENCE AND MEDIA COVERAGE Over the course of the event itself, some 16,000 tickets were sold, with visitors attending on average for three days of the nine day event. In addition the matches were watched by teams and their support staff (438), officials (36), the media (131), guests and VIPs (254), so that in all nearly 24,000 actually saw the teams compete for qualification for Beijing. At the event itself professional researchers conducted interviews with over 400 people to enable us to build on the experience; the feedback was extremely positive, and a number of useful suggestions were made. TV production was very high quality and broadcast coverage was extensive. Overall, 81 hours of broadcasting were recorded across Europe: Eurosport showed 14 hours, with one million watching the Germany versus England match. BBC used their digital red button platform for the medal matches and also produced a one hour highlights programme. Terrestrial coverage in Germany, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands was extensive, with 859,000 Dutch and 432,000 Spanish fans watching on local channels. Broadband streaming saw 408,000 viewing sessions with 83,000 unique users watching the highlights in the month of August alone. Over 80% of broadband viewers were from the key countries of the Netherlands, UK, Belgium and Germany. The event website proved a great success with over 271,000 visitors generating 39.6 million hits. The online commentary was extremely well received. Other media coverage included a feature on the Gillette World of Sport programme, a substantial number of national and local TV and radio interviews and many print articles. RESULTS AND HOME ADVANTAGE With the top three places in each of the men s and women s tournaments providing automatic qualification to the Beijing Olympics, competition was always bound to be intense. One of the key reasons UK Sport had provided substantial funding for the event was to take advantage of playing at home. The England women delivered with a bronze medal and immediate qualification on behalf of GB. The men finished a disappointing 5th with the draw against Belgium proving the crucial early result. Undoubtedly the experience of playing in front of a large home crowd will prove beneficial in the run up to the 2012 London Olympics. PARTNERSHIP FUNDING AND RETURN ON INVESTMENT The event in Manchester was two years in the planning with core funding support in place in early 2006; our thanks go to UK Sport, Manchester City Council, and the North West Development Agency for their commitment and financial support. Our sponsors were put in place gradually, and our thanks go to them all: notably Qatar Airways, Konica Minolta, Mobilis, and Rabobank. The retail village was an undoubted success and thanks also to all the companies that participated here; we know they found it a good investment. We also had a number of companies that took out advertising around the pitch. Finally we were grateful for the National Hockey Foundation s support for the Fun Zone. A Stakeholder Board chaired by Philip Kimberley and comprising all key funding partners approved budget expenditure and policies, whilst the Operational Planning Group chaired by Andy Tapley worked on the detail, and delivered the event. Pre- and post-event economic impact assessment studies were undertaken, and they were remarkably similar. It is estimated that the event generated some 6m of positive economic impact in Manchester and the wider region which bodes well for our ability to persuade public funding agencies to support similar events in future years, particularly in the build up to the Olympics in Page 12 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page 13

8 EuroHockey Nations Championships continued UK Sport was delighted with their investment though disappointed at not seeing the men qualify. EUROPEAN AND INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION FEEDBACK The feedback from both the European (EHF) and International Hockey Federations (FIH) has been extremely positive, with the former deeming the event one of the best ever held. Discussions are well advanced with the FIH about our hosting of the Women s Champions Trophy in 2010 and at the time of writing this report, public funding has been put in place and a full business plan developed. POSITIVE EXPERIENCE FOR ENGLAND HOCKEY STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS Many England Hockey staff were involved in the planning for and actual running of the event itself. We have calculated that over 150,000 worth of staff time in kind was devoted to the event and lessons have been learnt for hosting future events of such a size. A number of individuals experienced huge personal growth with their roles but it did stretch the organisation. The real stars though were the fantastic volunteers, the Eurocrew, 262 in total, with 66 from the Manchester Commonwealth Games legacy team. They ranged in age from 13 to 89! The experiences they enjoyed and the service they gave were simply immense. and a last minute decision to lay track way in the village following the very wet weather in June and July. The big uncertainty in planning for any such event though, is of course ticket sales income. The main expenditure items are illustrated in the pie charts opposite. The seating, tented/ retail village and hospitality areas cost 396k. TV production costs to the standard needed for broadcasting came to 239k. The EHF s hosting fee, protocol and special events came to 101k. Accommodation, security, transport, and equipment was 114k. Marketing, PR, advertising, IT and accreditation infrastructure totalled 96k. Legacy spend was 33k and a whole host of small items totalled some 137k. Income and investment came from a variety of sources. Our public funding partners contributed 412k; without their support hosting major events like this would be impossible. Ticket sales generated 203k after agent s commission, but fell short of the revised budget. Sponsorship and advertising budgets were beaten and generated 129k as were merchandising/licensing/hospitality targets at 83k. TV rights income generated 53k net of commissions. Other sources contributed 62k including that of the National Hockey Foundation. Finally England Hockey invested 173k in cash in the event. are sufficiently high to generate the sort of ticket revenues and rights fees comparable to the large spectator sports. Major hockey events demand investment if the sport is to be promoted and developed, particularly given TV broadcast obligations without local host broadcasters being prepared to cover such costs. The Board has already committed in Expenditure 1.1m 96, , , , ,000 principle a similar investment amount as was necessary for Manchester for the Women s Champions Trophy in 2010, should our discussions with the FIH be successful. Pages will give our progress report on how we are doing against our long term objectives EuroHockey Nations Championships Seating, tented/retail village & hospitality 396,000 TV production costs 239,000 EHF hosting fee, protocol & special events 101,000 Accommodation, security, transport & equipment 114,000 Marketing, PR, advertising, IT & accreditation infrastructure 96,000 Legacy spend 33,000 Miscellaneous 137,000 Income 1.1m 137,000 33, ,000 Public funding partners 412,000 Ticket sales (after commission) 203,000 Sponsorship & advertising 129,000 Merchandising, licensing & hospitality 83,000 TV rights 53,000 Other sources (including NHF) 62,000 England Hockey investment 173,000 62,000 53,000 83, , , ,000 THE FINANCIAL SIDE The original budget for the event was set at 0.8m, but a number of key decisions were taken as the planning progressed that resulted in an increased budget of 1.1m. These decisions included firming up TV production costs (after assessing five quotes including ones from the Netherlands and Germany), a much enhanced tented and retail village design The England Hockey Board debated and agreed the increased cash investment in the event as the planning evolved, and it is a testament to the financial strength of the organisation that they were confident in so doing. Experience from other countries suggests that hosting such events is not profitable. Neither spectator numbers nor TV audience figures Official Official Partners Sponsors Page 14 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page 15

9 EuroHockey Highlights Page 16 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page 17

10 Bring more young people into the sport Hockey needs to ensure that it continues to attract young people into the sport if it is to thrive in the future. Clubs and schools up and down the country are providing the environment for young people to enjoy the game so that hockey can compete with the higher profile sports. We are working hard to provide the role models amongst our international players so that young people have individuals to aspire to, and we have an ambassador scheme which will take these role models out into the hockey family via a number of different initiatives. The build up to London 2012 will provide a once in a lifetime opportunity for hockey to raise its profile which we will take advantage of over the next five years. PLAYGROUND TO PODIUM Quicksticks a fast, safe, exciting new small sided game will be launched for the start of the 2008 academic year providing our youngest players access to the Single System player pathway. Quicksticks and its supporting delivery scheme aims to develop hockey for children aged 7 11 years irrespective of ability and gender, in an accessible, safe but challenging environment. Quicksticks can be introduced and played on a variety of surfaces, indoors and out. The game will be fast, safe and exciting both to participate in and to watch/officiate or lead and will therefore attract more youngsters into the game. The general philosophy will be to have fun whilst learning and developing core skills. Quicksticks is a safe and exciting programme designed to take young people through from FUNdamental related activities to playing hockey in the playground. It has NO goalkeepers, making it safe, accessible, costand time-effective and is based on small sided game principles that are simple to play and teach, minimise danger, make it more exciting, minimise stoppages and maximise playing time. Caroline Sunderland, Chair of the Youth Committee, has been driving the committee s work which includes the Quicksticks initiative; our thanks to them all. Other work by the committee includes the junior competitions review, aspects of the Single System implementation, and a Clubs 1st review. The committee has also looked at Equity and Safeguarding developments as well as the proposed new Code of Ethics which support bringing more young people into the sport. The England Hockey Youth Panel has also had a busy year and was again responsible for the highly successful National Youth Festival held at Highfields in Nottingham. They also organised activities at the National Indoor Finals. SCHOOLS AND TERTIARY EDUCATION Focus on schools and tertiary education continues to be crucial to ensure we have hockey players, managers, coaches and volunteers for the future. England Hockey is continuing to make an impact leading this vital area of work for the sport. Coaching for Teachers conferences have been planned for The courses will continue to be a valuable tool to up-skill not only teachers but Post Graduate Certificate in Education (Qualified Teacher Status), undergraduate students and Community Sports Coaches. The Leadership Award continues to be a great success, with growing numbers of candidates achieving the award (over 1,644 attended which is 500 more than last year). The Leadership Plus is the start of our volunteering pathway for coaches, managers and umpires and it leads the way in terms of a web-based resource for volunteers to gain mentoring, current information and assistance from local staff. The Club School Links project (CSL) continues to build on and enhance the existing PE and sport opportunities available to young people in schools. Through coordinated partnerships young people will be guided from schools to affiliated and accredited hockey clubs linked to those partnerships. The benefits of this project for our sport are: Increased opportunities for both players and volunteers. Individual and community wide health benefits of physically active lifestyles. Keeping young people involved beyond the school leaving age. Improved levels of performance for those of all abilities. Extended opportunities for selfdevelopment and teamwork. Positive recreational and competitive opportunities for young people outside school. Increased opportunities for schools to connect with the wider communities in which they are located. The supply of a vibrant and growing membership and volunteer base for clubs, School Sports Partnerships and hockey. The membership statistics for continued to show an increase in young participants, with an additional 3,000 under 16s now playing in affiliated clubs, and more than 250 new junior teams. Higher education After a year-long tendering and selection process, England Hockey announced that four NPCs had been selected to work in partnership with us to deliver key areas of the Single System, including talent selection, supporting hockey s performance objectives. The centres will provide excellence in training facilities and the delivery of a high performance hockey programme for selected players aged years. In alphabetical order they are: East Midlands NPC (Nottingham Trent University, Loughborough University and Nottingham University consortia) Hockey West NPC (University of Bath, University of Bristol and University of the West of England UWE consortia) South Coast NPC (University of Southampton, Southampton Solent University and the University of Portsmouth consortia) Yorkshire NPC (Sheffield Hallam University, The University of Sheffield consortia) Three NPCs will be established for a September 2008 start with the Yorkshire NPC starting in September Discussions are also continuing with three other prospective NPCs and it is hoped that these will also come to fruition. The NPCs are essential to provide aspiring international hockey players with top quality coaching with specific strength and conditioning programmes alongside physiotherapy, lifestyle and medical support, together with the development of their academic qualifications. Players will continue to play local club hockey (strong club links being a key criterion in the selection process) and this will enable the sharing of high performance practice. Further work is being developed with BUSA and University & College Sport (UCS) on a BUSA competition re-structure, affiliations and development of coaching and umpiring structures within Universities and Colleges. Page 18 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page 19

11 Youth Festival Fun in 2007 Bring more young people into the sport continued YOUNG PEOPLE AND CLUBS In 2007 a further 38 clubs achieved Clubs Ist Accreditation, bringing the total to 115. These clubs are committed to the development of a safe, effective and child friendly environment as part of the Sport England Clubmark scheme. A further 400 of our clubs are registered and working towards Clubs 1st. Thanks to all clubs who are committed to improving opportunities for young people in our sport. Clubs 1st is being updated to fit with current legislation and national criteria set by external bodies such as Sport England and the Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU). The updated criteria and branding will be launched early in Clubs already developing their Clubs 1st file needn t be too alarmed as this will be rolled out over a six month period. YAZOO NATIONAL YOUTH FESTIVAL Despite awful weather conditions the YAZOO National Youth Festival, held at Highfields Sports Club, attracted over 1,200 of the hockey family through its gates this year. The National Youth Panel again successfully ran the event which continues to develop young umpires and young leaders as a part of a weekend programme. Saturday staged the U9s EuroHockey Nations themed festival, Girls U16 Schools Plate Final and a men s England U21 v Reading. The National Mini Hockey Championships, on Sunday, saw some fine displays of England s future hockey talent. It was widely regarded as the best festival to date due to the Youth Panel s hard work, and continued commitment to develop the event each year. The festival raised almost 800 for its nominated charity, the NSPCC. Jasper s Stixcity, the bungee run, bouncy castle, and crafts tent all gave plenty of different and fun options for those that attended. Thanks also go to the National Hockey Foundation for their continued support of the event. YOUNG UMPIRE PROGRAMME Our Young Umpire Programme continues to be measured as a flagship programme by Hockey Associations around the world. In addition, other sports are introducing similar programmes and asking us to support them to get things underway. All age group (junior) events in the national programme are set aside for young umpire and young official development and in 2007 for the first time each of the five regional mini hockey championships/festivals was supported by new young volunteers. The Young Umpire of the Year Award for 2007 was awarded to 17 year old Paul Walker (pictured below) of Kent. Paul is a fantastic young ambassador for our sport and a role model to all of our young umpires. We wish him ongoing success. Our Regional Young Umpire Action Groups (RYUAGs) have been busy promoting umpiring opportunities and recruiting new young whistlers into the sport. We are proud to report that we now have in excess of 1,000 active young umpires across the country a terrific achievement that we are very proud of. The 2007 National Young Umpire Promising List is now 24 strong and a further four NYUPL umpires have been promoted to Level 3. Paul Walker (left) receives his Young Umpire of the Year Award Page 20 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page 21

12 Develop our thriving club structure Clubs are at the heart of all hockey activity in England. There are about 1,000 affiliated clubs ranging from large multi-sports clubs to small one-team clubs. Generally, the total number of clubs is falling slowly as the small number of new clubs is outnumbered by mergers of clubs. Teams and participants are, however, steadily increasing in number, particularly in junior numbers. In the affiliation year, the number of players identified in the affiliation process rose slightly, though the numbers are still being checked. The average size of clubs is still six teams. The sport has a long tail of small clubs over 400 have two teams or fewer! Only 219 or 21% of all affiliated clubs field 10 teams or more. Our average club size (six teams) in England is small compared to our continental counterparts: in Spain and Germany it s over 10, Belgium about 20, and the Netherlands about 30! In fact in the whole of Europe there are only 3,000 clubs and England has 1,000 of them. All sports clubs face challenges of scarce resources in terms of facilities, volunteers, finances and the ever increasing complexity of administration caused by government legislation. Mergers are therefore natural and will ensure the stronger clubs survive. SUPPORT FOR CLUBS Services and resources to clubs were enhanced during 2007: The online affiliation process was developed further to make it easier for clubs to use. The number of clubs using this service increased by 25% to over 250 during the recent affiliation process. England Hockey employed 12 new Development Officers to replace the declining number employed by the County Sports Partnerships (CSPs). A Membership Services Manager was appointed to develop club affiliation benefits and services. The Clubs 1st resource pack has had a total overhaul and will soon be available to accredited clubs as a complete club management handbook. Over half the affiliated clubs use the FixturesLive online club management tools, and a number of leagues use the service for publishing their fixtures and results. England Hockey continues to support this service so that it remains free to the hockey community. An online player registration system was launched for the Slazenger EHL this saved considerable administration time at club and national level. The Slazenger sponsorship of the EHL has allowed us to reduce costs and increase prize money for competing teams. Sponsorship secured from the Man Group Plc has reduced entry fees for junior competitions and enabled the setting up of the new regional assessment camps and tournaments. 1.18m of CCPD funding for facilities for 27 clubs was drawn down. 1,644 Young Leaders, 1,400 Level 1 coaches, and 2,529 Level 1 umpires were trained. COACHING A key focus for coaching in 2007 has been to train the Coach Education workforce to deliver the UK Coaching Certificate (UKCC) Awards. Hockey continues to lead the way in coach education and this has now transformed into the work for the UKCC Coaching Framework an initiative to ensure consistently high standards of coaching are delivered across all sports throughout the UK. One of the five sports to pilot the UK Coaching Framework Following the success of our work in coach education we have now been chosen as a trail blazer sport for this important new government initiative. This started in April 2007 when Anne Baker and Jane Powell presented an overview of hockey s vision for a strong coaching framework from grassroots to elite performance by A GB coaching group has been formed which includes David Faulkner, Jane Powell and Anne Baker and is chaired by Sally Munday. The Chief Executives of Wales and Scotland are part of the group, along with the Welsh and Scottish Coach Education Managers. This group met six times in 2007 to organise a GB-wide strategy. A working plan is in place to cover four main strategy areas and 12 action areas. Sportscoach UK are keen for the UK to lead the World in developing a world class coaching system. We are particularly proud that the work of England Hockey has been recognised in leading the Home Countries and that we have been recognised as one of five sports to lead this work in the UK. In terms of Coach Education we saw: Qualifications Development The Level 1 and 2 portfolios have been rewritten and are now much more user friendly for both tutors and candidates. Feedback has been very good. Portfolio work completion should be much simpler. This is indeed proving to be the case after six months trial. One of six sports to pilot and shape the new Level 4 course A course is being developed by Jane Powell with the University of Central Lancashire. The entry criteria will soon be published and applications invited. Level 3 VRQ Award Four coaches completed this award within 12 months and we are hopeful that with this new format there will be many more. The time for the completion of old Level 3 awards from ended in November 2007 and 60% of candidates managed to complete the award. Level 2 VRQ Award Courses continued with a completion rate at about 50%. We have been running assessment days to give candidates additional opportunities to complete the course as we seek to increase the pass rate. Level 1 VRQ Award Over 1,400 candidates passed the Level 1 Coaching Assistant award in 2007, with the completion rate at around 98%. In terms of Human Resource development we saw: Coach Educators Over 120 tutors attended the Certificate of Tutoring in Sport modules delivered under Sportscoach UK License by our senior tutors in regions. 93 attended the Coach Education Workforce Training held at Bisham Abbey s National Sports Centre in April. Assessors 87 assessors now hold a formal qualification. Internal Verifiers We currently have 22 Internal Verifiers, with Page 22 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page 23

13 Develop our thriving club structure continued seven qualifying in the new Certificate in Internal Verification Practice in Sport award. Hockey is currently the only sport to qualify personnel with this new award. Many more resources have been developed for the Coach Education workforce. Coaching workshops 11 different coaching workshops are now available for delivery in regions. Our thanks go the Coaching Committee chaired by Tony Eaude for all their hard work. OFFICIATING AND UMPIRING We are delighted to report that England again had many umpiring successes from grassroots level to the world stage. We have a new official partnership with Tempest Sports who are supplying our branded clothing for umpires and officials. Domestically we had a record 2,529 umpires participating in Level 1 Award Courses across 139 courses nationwide, 1,011 people participating in the popular Foundation Umpire Award and 220 new young people completing the Young Umpire Award. Just over 2,000 new accreditations have been issued to umpires this year a great success. At international level, England Hockey are pleased to report that we have one new FIH umpire (Janice Tasho) and two of our international umpires, Frances Block (pictured below) and Clive Hough, have been promoted to FIH Crown. In addition, we also have two indoor hockey promotions to report Nick White to FIH and Sarah Bush to FIH Crown. Our thanks go to the Umpiring Committee chaired by Liz Pelling for all their hard work during the year. OFFICIATING AND TECHNICAL Domestically, we have struggled to recruit as many new technical officials as we would like, but our list of national and international technical appointments has increased. The majority of our officials turn out most weekends as Slazenger EHL Match Officials. This is an important and often lonely and challenging role and we appreciate the efforts of all who volunteer. Internationally we have had 37 technical appointments in 2007 and nine international umpire management appointments. Domestically we have appointed to more than 600 Slazenger EHL games and 18 tournaments. Frances Block umpiring at the EuroHockey Nations Championships VOLUNTEERING 2007 has been an exciting year for our volunteer programme. Our biggest achievement was the recruitment and training of the EuroCrew the team of 262 volunteers who helped us for 14 days to deliver the Europeans in Manchester in August. Many said that it was the most rewarding international sports event they have been involved with since the 2002 Commonwealth Games. As more than 100 of them are professional event volunteers who travel from sport to sport and event to event, this made us feel very proud. In addition, volunteering in hockey and its profile within our sport has risen to a new level with a very significant number of visits to the volunteering pages of the website. FACILITIES The 1.18m secured by England Hockey from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport budget and delivered through the CCDP has resulted in project investment across 27 Clubs 1st accredited hockey clubs in England. In each case we have contributed significant funding, enabling the clubs to upgrade their facilities to high quality sand-dressed pitches and/or the provision of national level flood-lighting. The clubs selected each demonstrated a commitment to enhancing existing and creating new participation at community level and we are delighted to report that all projects with the exception of two late additions are now completed. The remainder will come to fruition in COMPETITIONS The highlight of the domestic competitions and events programme in 2007 was again Indoor Finals Day in January 2007, sponsored by Qatar Airways. Lessons had been learned from the first year at the new venue, enabling a slicker, better presented event that was enjoyed by another 4,000-strong crowd at the NIA and by viewers on Sky Sports. Slough took the honours in the women s final, beating Bowdon Hightown 7 4. In the men s final Canterbury gained revenge on East Grinstead, who had beaten them in 2006, to win the crown after a thrilling 7 6 encounter. This event also saw the culmination of the Boys and Girls U16 and U18 championships; the four finals were the first to benefit from the Man Group Plc s sponsorship of England Hockey s competitions for young people. Outdoors also saw the boost of a new sponsor with Slazenger sponsoring the EHL. Leicester lifted the women s Premier Division title for the fourth year in succession, finishing two points clear of Slough. The men s title race went to the wire, with long-time leaders Cannock travelling to Reading on the last Sunday of the season knowing that a point would clinch them the title. This looked likely until Reading scored in the 63rd minute to run out 2 1 winners and take the title. England Hockey was again grateful to the clubs and organisations that assisted with the staging of events around the country. In a change for 2007, all of the inter-county events were hosted by the relevant Regional Hockey Association, as shown below, and we thank their officers for the support they gave. National Schools Championships for Girls East Grinstead U14 Winner: Kingston Grammar School U16 Winner: Ecclesbourne School U18 Winner: Repton School National Schools Championships for Boys St George s College U14 Winner: Ipswich School U16 Winner: Trent College U18 Winner: Kingston Grammar School EH Cup Semis and Finals Reading HC Men s Cup Winner: Cannock Women s Cup Winner: Bowdon Hightown Page 24 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page 25

14 Develop our thriving club structure continued Boys U16/U18 Four Nations Invitational Tournament Exeter University U18: Netherlands (England 2nd) U16: Netherlands (England 3rd) Slazenger EHL Play-offs Men s Sheffield Girls U15/U17 County Championships Bournemouth HC (West) U15: Derbyshire U17: Buckinghamshire Mini Hockey Championships Highfields, Nottingham U11 Boys: Belper Women s Senior County Championships Chelmsford HC (East) Winner: Cumbria Mixed Finals Old Loughtonians HC Trophy: Solihull Blossomfield Plate: Phoenix Our thanks go to the Competitions Committee chaired by Roger Lomas and the other committees Indoors and EHL for all their hard work during the year. Oxford Hawks relegated from National South Division Sheffield Hallam Civica maintain National North Division status Barford Tigers maintain National North Division status Oxted maintain National South Division status Chelmsford maintain Division One status Bowdon promoted to Premier Division Belper relegated to Division One Slazenger EHL Play-offs Womens Wakefield HC Preston relegated from National North Division Exmouth maintain National South Division status University of Birmingham maintained Division One status Aldridge maintain National North Division status St Albans maintain National South Division Status Clifton promoted to Premier Division U13 Boys: Clifton College U11 Girls: Felsted Prep U13 Girls: Felsted Prep U15/U18 Cup Finals Birmingham University Boys U15 Cup Finals: Reading Boys U18 Cup Finals: Reading Girls U15 Cup Finals: Belper Girls U18 Cup Finals: Belper Mens & Womens 2nd XI Cup and Trophy Bowdon HC Mens 2nd XI Cup: Bromley & Beckenham Mens 2nd XI Trophy: University of Cambridge Womens 2nd XI Cup: Ipswich Away from the action during 2007 further consultation was undertaken with clubs in relation to the Performance Plan. The guiding principles of the plan were to: Deliver effective domestic competition and coach education in parallel Have a clear impact on player and coach development from clubs to the international stage. The outcome of the consultation feedback saw the following changes implemented for the season and beyond: Sutton Coldfield relegated to Division One Trophy, Vase, Veterans and Vintage Finals Chelmsford HC Harrod UK Men s Trophy Winners: Banbury Women s Trophy Winners: Tulse Hill & Dulwich Men s Vase Winners: Andover Womens 2nd XI Trophy: Blackburn Northern U15/18 Club Plate Finals Bowdon HC Boys U15 Club Plate Finals: Teddington Boys U18 Club Plate Final: Old Loughtonians Girls U15 Club Plate Finals: Leeds Adel Carnegie Clearly defined indoor window in December and January Scheduling men s and women s Cup times on performance dates with clear player priority for the latter Women s Vase Winners: Chichester Men s Veterans Cup: Isca Women s Veterans Cup: Cambridge City Men s Vintage Cup Winners: Indian Gymkhana Boys U15/U17 County Championships East Grinstead HC (South) U17: Lancashire Girls U18 Club Plate Finals: Teddington Men s U21 County Championships Cannock HC (Midlands) Winner: Lancashire Men s Senior County Championships Sheffield HC (North) A restructuring of the Slazenger EHL for the season, with a Premier Division supported by three regional Conference divisions A restriction on the number of players that Slazenger EHL clubs may register. U15: Hampshire Winner: Cheshire Further discussion in this field will continue with clubs into Page 26 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page 27

15 Achieve international success at the highest level The beginning of 2007 was the busiest for some years. The GB senior women travelled to South Africa for a three match test series, which they won, as part of their initial preparations for Beijing. Following a GB men s camp in Portugal in December 2006, our England senior men travelled to Gibraltar as part of their preparations for the Europeans. Australian Olympic Youth Festival In late 2006, we prepared men s and women s GB Youth Teams to compete in the Australian Olympic Youth Festival in January 2007, a biennial multi-sport event, which was a legacy from the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Prior to the start of the Festival, we also took the opportunity to play a test series against the host nation, Australia. During the Festival GB competed against Malaysia, New Zealand, China and Australia with both teams making the final. Our women defeated Australia 4 2 to win the Gold Medal and our men were defeated on penalty strokes by Australia, to win the Silver Medal. The competition provided a fantastic opportunity for our young athletes and staff and there is no question that putting a Great Britain shirt on such young players so early will impact positively on their contribution to GB in the Olympic environment. The GB Youth teams have been invited back for the 2009 and 2011 Australian Olympic Youth Festivals. Great Britain Super League In April 2007 the GB Super League was launched with six teams of each gender. The teams comprised three English-based teams, two Scottish-based teams and a Welsh-based team, taking on distinct identities The Saxon Tigers, Wessex Leopards and Pennine Pumas (England), Caledonian Cougars and Highland Jaguars (Scotland) and Celtic Panthers (Wales). Time was made available for teams to prepare, which included the three English-based teams playing a match against Canada. The Super League competition was played over three weekends initially at Edinburgh and Swansea, with the finals taking place in Manchester at Belle Vue. The league was won, in both genders, by the Wessex Leopards. The competition enabled the England and Great Britain head coaches, Jason Lee and Danny Kerry, to have a good look across the three Home Nations at the athletes who would make up the GB squads for Beijing. Champions Challenge Our England senior women travelled to Baku in Azerbaijan with a less experienced squad, as a result of several players unavailability due to examination commitments and injury. In total, seven changes were made to the more established squad. The competition was very demanding especially with the climatic conditions. The game against China was played just after midday in 40 degree heat. England finished third beating the USA in the play-off game behind China and Korea; with China winning the event. England went into the tournament ranked 4th and finished 3rd above New Zealand and moved up one place in the world rankings. England senior men travelled to Boom in Belgium for their Champions Challenge event, which turned out to be a very demanding and highly competitive tournament. England finished 4th narrowly losing 4 3 to India, with Argentina beating New Zealand in the final. EuroHockey Nations Championships Following Baku, our England senior women based most of their training camps in Manchester, in preparation for the Europeans, playing Germany and Spain. England qualified for the semi-finals, following victories against Ireland and Italy whilst narrowly losing 1 0 to the Netherlands. In the semi final they played Germany losing 2 1 to set up a bronze medal game against Spain with the winners guaranteed a place in the Beijing Olympic Games. England dominated the majority of the game taking a 3 0 lead but the last minutes became very tense with Spain pulling back two goals. However, England held firm for a 3 2 win and took the 3rd place available from Europe for Beijing. The Championship was won by Germany who beat the Netherlands in the final. England s 3rd place finish was the earliest any Great Britain team has qualified for an Olympic Games. Credit should be given to all the players and staff; not only for their performances, but also for the way they all engaged in the event. England senior men also carried out most of their preparation in Manchester, playing against France and Spain, along with competing in the Hamburg Masters a week before the Europeans began. England s tournament was centred around their first game against Belgium which was drawn. Whilst they beat the Czech Republic comfortably, their loss against Germany meant they missed a semi final place on goal difference. This was followed in the classification game with a draw against Ireland and a win against Italy to finish 5th. The Netherlands went on to win the men s competition, beating Spain in the final, but the major surprise of the event was Belgium beating Germany in the 3rd/4th play off, resulting in Germany finishing outside the top three for the first time in their history and, like ourselves (this time as GB), having to qualify for the Olympics in a six-team qualifier in Chile in March Great Britain Seniors Both the men s and women s team came together in October for their respective programmes. The women held training camps throughout October and then travelled to Argentina for a five match test series. All the matches were very close with GB losing the series 3 1. However, the tour gave the opportunity for six young players to win their first GB cap. The GB men s team went to the Netherlands for a one-off international which they lost 3 1, during which 12 new players won their first GB caps. This match was followed by training camps at Bisham Abbey and then to Kuala Lumpur for the eight nations Champions Trophy Tournament was the first time that GB or England had participated in a Champions Trophy since 2001 and they finished 6th after losing to Spain 2 4 in the 5th/6th play-off. This result moved England up one place in the FIH World rankings to 8th and clearly demonstrated the desire for England and GB to compete regularly at the top level. National Age Groups For our U16 and U21 squads it was a quiet tournament year but with a full development programme. However, the U18 boys and girls Page 28 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page 29

16 International Action in 2007 Highlights Achieve from international 2007 success at the highest level continued competed in the European Youth Trophy in Edinburgh. The girls won Gold and beat the Netherlands and Germany in the tournament. The boys finished 4th behind Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. our regions and clubs, which is vitally important to ensure we impact in the international arena for both GB and England. Indoor JANUARY Our newly formed indoor teams JANUARY began their FEBRUARY preparation in December for the European Cup C Division, with training at the University of West of England and three internationals against Scotland in Paisley. The men tied the three match series whilst the Scottish women came out on top. APRIL Coaching We completed the first recruitment phase of the Centrally Contracted Coaches (CCCs), appointing 28 in total. These individuals will soon be completing their induction APRIL programmes and work programmes will be arranged around the newly formed Junior Regional Performance Centres and will support, where necessary, the National Age Groups. MAY Jane Powell, our Performance Coaching Manager, will be launching the Level 4 Coaching Award in early 2008 and is supporting the newly formed GB Hockey Coaching Strategy Group. JULY JULY AUGUST Staff Craig Parnham, the ex Great Britain and England international, joined the senior women s coaching team and Bev Blackburn joined England Hockey as the Performance Coaching Administrator. Summary 2007 clearly demonstrated the demands and level of competition now seen in international hockey. Working closely with the Development OCTOBER Team we continue to foster OCTOBER relationships with NOVEMBER Page 30 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page 31

17 Title Improve the sport s communications and profile A key way of raising the sport s profile is through regular hosting of major events. The section on the Europeans details the complexity and cost of so doing; however we did achieve our goal of providing nine days of top class international hockey in excellent surroundings. Regular hosting of routine international matches is not so easy; gaining commitment from opposition with decent lead times to promote an event and finding locations able to host is not always simple. TELEVISON COVERAGE People often say they never see the sport on television and it s never mentioned in the press. Neither is true of course; the sport has had extensive coverage on satellite TV this year, some on the BBC and media coverage in the Daily Telegraph, The Times and Daily Express is frequent. We wish we could obtain more coverage: it s not for want of trying. Most of the content of the media releases we issue does not get used. If we were regularly winning medals it might be easier, but not much. How much rowing, cycling, or sailing do you see on TV? We are world beaters at these sports. If we pay for TV production we can get air time, but we will not obtain much (if any) in the way of rights money. Production costs for indoor finals are in excess of 25k for one day; the cost of production for the Europeans was well over 200k. We simply can t afford to produce such content that often. The 2007 National Indoor Finals were, however, televised again live on Sky Sports TV for three hours in a peak-time Sunday evening slot between Premiership football and the NFL Super Bowl. The NIA Finals, together with the previous year s Sky Sports Nation coverage of two England Hockey invitation events, has helped forge a relationship with Sky TV whereby Sky are now taking some FIH footage, including their World Hockey magazine programme. The TV highlight of the year was of course the Europeans in August which was extensively screened on British Eurosport with additional coverage from the BBC. BROADBAND STREAMING Internet technology means that content can now be viewed via a website. We began a trial of our own Broadband TV channel with edited highlights of the Europeans available on Viewing figures for this were very encouraging. EHTV will be expanded to include filming of key domestic competitions and events, archive footage of major events, and specific coaching/umpiring content, where it is cost effective to do so. WEBSITES the England Hockey website, continues to see very high visitor numbers and has become a key part of our communications strategy. The separate Europeans website was built and introduced in 2007 to promote the Championships and provide international editorial for the event with links to ticketing information. In addition, a new Great Britain Hockey website was designed and built to become the source of information for GB Team news, selection, fixtures, results and reports. EH NEWS Originally an England Hockey Newsletter, EH News is now a 48-page, four-colour, glossy magazine distributed to our clubs as a benefit of club affiliation. THE MEDIA Securing ongoing print media coverage for hockey (outside of major events) remains a challenge. We continue to work closely with the Hockey Writer s Club to obtain coverage for the sport and maintain a regular presence in The Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Express and relevant local/regional papers. BUSINESS TO BUSINESS We promote the sport wherever possible through the business and marketing press, in our efforts to raise our profile commercially. England Hockey is an active member of the European Sponsorship Association and we attended various other sports industry seminars/conferences that provided networking opportunities. INTERNATIONAL PROFILE Finally, England Hockey s international standing was acknowledged by the FIH awarding us the Pablo Negre Trophy. This is awarded to the National Association which has by its activities, initiatives, and sportsmanship served the best course of hockey and made it popular during the previous two years. The FIH praised England Hockey for its excellent work in hosting the 2006 FIH Congress in London, and the ongoing revival of the organisational structure of England. Peer group recognition is probably the hardest won! Page 32 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page 33

18 Develop a broader income base England Hockey Sponsors & Official Suppliers The progress made in establishing thirdparty commercial relationships outside our government funding progressed steadily in 2007, and deals signed in 2006 began to take effect throughout the year. The year began with another commercially successful National Indoor Hockey Championships, with title sponsorship from Qatar Airways and kit sponsorship from Tempest Sports. This income, together with some additional advertising support, enabled us to cover the production costs of a threehour live broadcast on Sky Sports TV. The Slazenger sponsorship of the EHL and kit supplier partnership of the England National teams progressed well throughout the year. The hi-tech/performance kit has been well received by all the squads and the branding works well for both Slazenger and England Hockey. In addition to their sponsorship of the EHL, Slazenger launched a range of England Hockey official merchandise in the summer of 2007 including clothing, hockey sticks, stick bags, etc. Slazenger is also providing financial incentives for the England national teams to progress in the official FIH rankings. The National Youth Festival sponsorship by Dutch dairy products company Campina, through its YAZOO brand, was a great success despite the inclement weather over the weekend of the Festival. Campina has pledged additional funds for the 2008 Festival. Sponsorship apart, our partnership with a number of official suppliers to the sport also progressed in These relationships provide us with both benefit in kind and royalties/commissions. The portfolio of official suppliers at the end of 2007 was: Our partnership with the Man Group Plc commenced in 2007, with the leading city hedge fund investing 500k over five years to sponsor the junior performance camps and tournaments, and all junior competitions in hockey. For Man Group plc, this is part of their Corporate Social Responsibility programme and is an excellent endorsement of hockey s Single System initiative. Very sadly, Tony Markus, who brokered the deal for us, died suddenly during the summer; we are most grateful for his having worked so hard to ensure this support. The Man Group Plc relationship was further reinforced when the National Sports Foundation agreed to match the first two years of their sponsorship. England Hockey were therefore one of the first governing bodies to benefit from the new National Sports Foundation initiative. Asics hockey footwear Canterbury performance underwear Harrod UK goals and nets Lucozade Sport sport drinks and nutrition products Mobilis healthcare products O Pro mouthguards Polar heart rate monitors At the end of 2007 a number of new income generating initiatives were being progressed and negotiated, with a view to these being launched in Page 34 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page 35

19 Efficient and effective governance and operations England Hockey receives funding from its members and government quangos and all quite rightly expect first class governance and operations. Our processes and procedures have matured as England Hockey has grown since its birth in 2003 and regular audits from stakeholders ensure that standards are set high. This year has seen the annual detailed audit by Sport England of our procedures and separate inspections from UK Sport and Her Majesties Revenue & Customs as well as the normal audit procedures. The Audit Committee, chaired by Andy Tapley, is an independent group of qualified individuals working on behalf of the Regions Consultative Committee to ensure standards are not only maintained within the finance team but developed to deal with the challenges of a growing organisation. The organisation coped well with the demands of the Europeans on top of business as usual and UK Sport were delighted with the detailed procedures put in place to handle such a challenging event. The Audit Committee s report is published on the website, along with our statutory accounts also saw much detailed work on the new CRM system, led by the appointment of Nicola Dawson as project manager on secondment for two years from Centrica Plc s Brisith Gas division. This support was provided under the BOA/FTSE 100 partnership scheme and allows England Hockey to push ahead with a key initiative towards its aim of further broadening its income base by The ability to administer and communicate with the Hockey Family through one source of truth will have a significant impact on the efficiency of the organisation in future. has taken the total staff number to over 60 and during 2007 there has been continued focus on their training and development. Each individual has an annual appraisal where objectives are agreed with their line manager and all staff have benefited from a series of training modules in RISK MANAGEMENT AND INSURANCE In an increasingly litigious environment it is vital that England Hockey and the Hockey Family manage their risks and have adequate insurance cover in place. Our risk register is reviewed regularly by the Board and steps are taken to reduce risk where appropriate. We also joined the Central Council for Physical Recreation s mutual assurance scheme in 2007 as a further means of improving the cost-effectiveness of our insurance arrangements. VAT As outlined in previous Annual Reports, HMR&C insisted that we levied VAT on affiliation fees from Legal advice was that it would be a lengthy and costly process to challenge the decision and it was decided that this could not be justified. However Canterbury HC decided to challenge the matter and their appeal has now reached the European Court of Justice. A decision is expected some time in The decision will have many implications for England Hockey s VAT arrangements and if the appeal is won the amount of VAT that would be refunded by HMR&C is unknown. We have always promised to pass on any refund to clubs but as re-stated at the 2007 AGM, the amount and timing of any such payment is still very unclear and is highly unlikely to be the full amount of VAT paid by clubs on their affiliation fees. EQUITY, ETHICS AND SAFEGUARDING AND PROTECTING YOUNG PEOPLE We believe the safeguarding and protection of young people within our sport is of paramount importance and we continually strive to improve systems, procedures and guidance to create an environment that is fun, safe and youngpeople friendly. This year we are proud to have achieved the intermediate level of the NSPCC s Safeguarding and Protecting Young People in Sport Standards. Our work on equality has developed during 2007 and has achieved success in attaining both the foundation and preliminary levels of the Equality Standard A Framework for Sport. As part of this work we have written an Equality Action Plan and are now working on its implementation. Legislation and guidance relating to the safeguarding and protection of young people and equality is ever changing. We will keep all members of the Hockey Family up to date and informed of changes, and where necessary provide support and information on how they relate to our sport. The appointment of the 12 Development Officers Page 36 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 England Hockey Annual Report 2007 Page 37