England Hockey League 2023/24 Club Feature: Canterbury

Canterbury are one of Division 1 South’s title contenders as they aim to return to the Premier Division, reports Rod Gilmour ofThe Hockey Paper

When Canterbury played University of Exeter in their Men’s Division 1 South opener last weekend, the Kent side knew they couldn’t compete with the students’ technology set up.

Instead, Canterbury summoned their best tactical deployment to earn a 2-1 victory at home, with both sides considered title favourites in a tight league.

Exeter’s coaches were linked up with earphones and mouthpieces, iPads were hooked up to GPS systems, while a drone hovered overhead to film the action. Meanwhile, Canterbury relied on a whiteboard and a first aid kit. 

“It’s great to see how much support there is in university for their players and that they get to experience a professional environment,” says Canterbury coach Craig Boyne. “It would be lovely to have a drone or two. For us, we don’t have that sort of budget.”

Australian Boyne, director of sport at Wellesley House school, joined Canterbury in the 2014/15 season before the club were relegated to Division 1 in 2018. As player-coach, Boyne set about changing the club programme with a focus on bringing through juniors, after consistently losing players and unable to field a stable squad.

Alongside the experience of goalkeeper Chris Rea, club captain Tom Richford and Boyne, Canterbury have been able to bring several under-18s into the side, with England under-18 Nathan Sumner, Josh Kitson, Charlie Jain and Whitgift School’s Rhys Harmer all making their mark.

“This is the culmination of three or four years of development from our juniors up and it’s really positive to see,” admits Boyne, a former Kookaburra.

“They played on Saturday and it’s really exciting for us that we aren’t just producing one or two juniors, we are producing more and there are a few more from the 2s who are pushing up and training with the 1s.”

Canterbury are integrating their training sessions in the juniors and top two men’s squads, with Thursday training seeing both teams on one pitch doing the same exercises. “The message gets sent much more efficiently through the lines, age groups and the teams,” adds Boyne.

While Canterbury have lost their two Australians, striker Alec Radmussen and Marshall Puzey, who has been called up by Perth Thundersticks for the Hockey 1 League, Boyne will be able to call upon two returning Brits, Jamie Tritton and Callum Brown-Lea, who have spent a year in Tasmania.

Meanwhile, Boyne has eyes in the game with his player-coach role, assistant and former GB international Alastair Brogdon on the sidelines and former Reading men’s coach Charlie Seccombe “acting as an extra pair of hands and a third opinion”. Boyne adds: “We are very in tune with how we want the team to be run.”

When Southgate looked assured title winners last season, Boyne was able to test out some of his youth in the last four or so games. It seems to have paid off with pre-season victories over Brighton & Hove and Old Cranleighan, coupled with their opening weekend win.

Canterbury finished fourth last season, jostling with Old Loughtonians and Teddington behind champions Southgate. 

Canterbury manager Gary Wyver concedes that Southgate “had that little bit extra, performance wise” last year, with two former Canterbury players, Kwan Browne and Teague Marcano, in their ranks.

“I think we will be in with a shot and looking at the scores from the first weekend there is no reason why we can’t be up there fighting for promotion this season,” he adds.

Boyne remains equally buoyant as Canterbury aim to return to the Premier Division five years on from demotion. 

“There will be a few teams in the league this year who will try and take that top spot and we are one of those teams,” says the Australian.

“The win over Exeter was a really good indication of that. But it’s a long season and the challenge for us is maintaining that level of excellence, irrelevant of who we are playing.”

Sunday: Sevenoaks v Canterbury, 2pm