It is with great excitement that we at Bedford HC in collaboration with the other Beds clubs recently launched the new Bedfordshire Development Centre, aimed at giving an amazing coaching and development experience for hockey players aged 12-18 from across the county.

Bedfordshire is in a unique position with a relatively low population density, resulting in some of our clubs simply not having the numbers to provide age centred training. In some cases we even struggled to have enough players in an age group to field a full county squad.

Growing hockey participation has to be a core goal for us all in the hockey family, and we have decided to pool our resources for the benefit of all the clubs in the area. The one thing we all want to avoid is the creation of ‘Super Clubs’ with young talent feeling they have to move to those clubs in order to progress.

We believe we have created a path that, whilst not a normal set up, will serve the greater good. England Hockey have provided advice and guidance along the way, recognising the aims of our endeavours whilst making sure that the player pathway is intact.

We now have youth players from 6 clubs coming together, getting an amazing experience with coaches who are current, energetic and incredible at what they do (many of whom are National League and International players), and then taking that back to their clubs to play league hockey.

We have taken the decision to make this a non-selective environment so that we can help encourage as many kids as possible; our coaches are experienced in streaming so that everyone is challenged and has fun.

County Training and selection will also be provided by BDC and teams will be fielded from the BDC squads.

Our hope is that the strength and depth within BDC will build every year and that as a result we will give more and more kids a chance to grow their love of hockey and take it to whatever level their ability allows.

We are all stronger if every club is stronger.

Regards,
David Ross
BHC Chairman