your County Sports Partnership

• Activities
• Holidays
• Sportivate
• Club Search
• Disability
• WY School Games
• Sports
• Reactivate

Hockey

Published on: 17th August 2011

Image of the hockey pitch at Olympic Park

Key people

The History of England Hockey

It officially became the NGB in December 2002, taking over from it's predecessor, the English Hockey Association (EHA).  The EHA - who had been formed in 1996 to unite the separate men's, women's and mixed associations - had to suspend operations earlier in 2002 because of significant financial problems.  The original men's and women's associations had been in existance for over 100 years prior to their merger in 1996.

The company was officially formed on the 1 January 2003.

The Size of England Hockey

England Hockey Board has grown in size since it's inception and currently employs 70 people.  This relatively small, paid and full-time group is supported by an incalculable number of dedicated volunteers at club, county, regional and national level.

To find out more about the staff of England Hockey Board, please take time to browse through our "Who We Are" section where you will find out all about the people who work for the NGB.

How hockey is structured in England

England Hockey is affiliated to the European Hockey Federation (EHF) and International Hockey Federation (FIH). The FIH is responsible for the production of the “Rules of Hockey” which are the rules that are followed worldwide by all players and umpires participating in the game.

England Hockey governs all hockey in this country from grass roots to the elite end of the sport. 

The structure and role of the Board is dealt with in the sections WHO WE ARE and WHAT WE DO. This section describes the structure of the sport throughout the country.

Governance of the game is devolved at a regional and local level to Regional and County Associations. There are six Regional Associations – East, Midlands, North, South, West and the Combined Services who represent the three single service Associations. Counties affiliate to their respective Region. These bodies bring clubs together at a local level and ensure that information is cascaded up and down through the game. They are also responsible for implementing the Disciplinary Code of England Hockey.   

The Regional Associations are represented on the Regional Consultative  Committee (RCC) which supports the work of the Board to ensure it is operating in line with the agreed Memorandum & Articles of England Hockey and follows best practice in terms of the financial management of the company’s affairs. 

The strength of hockey lies in it's clubs. England Hockey has about 1050 affiliated clubs.  These clubs also affiliate to their County and Regional Associations. The bedrock of club activity is league hockey played mostly on Saturdays almost exclusively on artificial turf pitches. This is organised through Regional and County Leagues with the top Men’s and Women’s clubs playing nationally in the English Hockey League of which the men’s game is played on Sunday.

Parallel umpiring associations and committees ensure that the games are controlled, where possible, by suitably qualified officials and just as there is a progression through leagues for teams so umpires will progress from the grass roots of the game through to national and international level. 

Clubs can run anything from 1 to 20 teams who turn out at the weekend. Some clubs would have a regular booking at a local pitch, either at a school or a leisure centre and will use a pub for post-match social activity. Other clubs will own their own clubhouse and pitch(es). The benefit of artificial turf pitches is that they can be used all day and into the evening if they have floodlights. It is not unusual for pitches to be in use for hockey matches on a Saturday from 10.30 am to 5.30 pm. 

Other club activity will include midweek training and an increasing number of clubs undertake youth development work on  weekdays after school, in the evenings and on Sundays. Hockey is a very popular sport with young people and is played in schools as well as junior sections of clubs.

Regions and Counties play an important role in the promotion of the game through the work they undertake with development schemes and initiatives and organising age group representative sides - often in partnership with other local agencies.