The culmination of The Hockey Museum’s (THM) project to create definitive playing records for Great Britain (GB) international hockey players matches will be the presentation of honours caps to every player with whom we can make contact.

We can now state with confidence that 578 men and women have represented Great Britain since the first outing at the Antwerp Olympic Games in 1920. Of this figure 368 of them are men, the disparity between the numbers of men and women being because women’s hockey was only introduced into the Olympic programme in 1980.

Honours Cap Awards

THM has so far made the following awards of GB honours caps. If some of the cap totals of these former players seem small in comparison to today, it is because there were many fewer international matches played in years gone by.

John Peake

7 GB caps; debut in 1948.

John played in the 1948 Olympic Games when GB won the silver medal. He is now the only surviving member of that team. We are pleased to report that John is very fit and well and living in a care home in West London. We were not able to make an official hockey presentation because of the ongoing Covid-19 situation (in January 2021), so the Manager of the home, Gayane Selimyan, was truly delighted to present the cap on hockey’s behalf, as John is a very popular resident.

The cap includes John’s record of his debut in 1948, his having played seven times for GB and that he was the 44th player to represent Great Britain.

Colin Dale

4 GB caps; debut in 1956.

Colin Dale played for GB in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games and was capped 36 times for Wales.

Owing to Covid restrictions (in April 2021), Colin received his cap at his home in Lincolnshire from his son Graham, who is himself a former Minor Counties cricketer with Huntingdonshire.