On Wednesday the 21st of May, I interviewed Tim Barlow, an Old Cranbrookian and current hockey coach at the school, to learn more about his fascinating background and career in hockey. Tim joined Cranbrook in 1957 and spent his years at the school heavily involved in the sports teams, including: rugby; cricket and hockey. His involvement in sport has inspired Tim and his peers to continue playing as he describes many of his contemporaries’ unwavering participation in sports throughout their lives. For Tim particularly, upon leaving Cranbrook, his sporting career was merely beginning as Tim went on to represent Worcestershire in the County Championship and the Midlands in the annual regional tournament.

Due to Tim’s qualification as a teacher, at the age of only 24, he became the youngest senior coach in the country. Tim’s enrolment as a teacher led him to become the Head of the Geography, Geology and Environmental Studies Department at a school in the Midlands, whilst simultaneously acting as a hockey coach for the England Under 14s and Under 16s Schoolboys and later the Under 18s as well. On top of this, Tim coached for the Worcestershire senior men, the Midlands’ men and the Midlands’ Schoolboys. However, hockey coaching at this point was unpaid and consequently, Tim could no longer multi-task both his commitments as a hockey coach and as a teacher and was forced to focus on his paid career as a teacher. It was not until his retirement at the age of 50 that hockey coaching began to be properly paid, enabling Tim to return to his passion in sports.

Tim has now worked at Cranbrook for four years and having taken Wales to two European Championships and winning 45 national championships throughout his career. His involvement in the Cranbrook school hockey teams is greatly appreciated.

In my interview with Tim, he provided a further insight into why he finds such enjoyment in hockey and coaching, explaining how it is both a way of keeping him active and enabling him to pass on his knowledge from his impressive career in the sport to the students here.

Were you involved with hockey during your time at Cranbrook?

‘Yes, every day. Sport was one afternoon a week and then if you’re in a team, another. We had games every afternoon so from 2 o'clock onwards, we would be on the playing fields: that is where a lot of my sporting background comes from.

So many of the people my age, my contemporaries, used to play a lot of cricket together and I must’ve played for 25 years at the Old Boy cricket club. We used to play one, sometimes two, matches a week and those matches for cricket would be an 11:30am start and a 6 o'clock finish. Sport was a big deal. It was only after I left that I thought of all the people that weren’t as keen on sport, and they were forced to do games-there weren’t any alternatives. My cricket and sporting background, which have been so important in my life, comes from being here really, and that’s part of the reason that I am back here now.’

Tim Barlow (at the end of the back row, on the right), Cranbrook School 1sts 1965

Do you think that hockey was a more popular sport when you were at school here as opposed to now?

‘Well, it was compulsory, so it wasn’t down to whether you liked it or not, you did it. Jeremy, my good friend, about three years older than me, he played for Great Britain in the 68 Olympics in Mexico, so a lot of people played sport and carried on when they left school.’

Why did you decide to become a hockey coach?

‘I was a teacher for 27 years and part of the teaching was being Head of the Geography department, but in those days, you had to have something else to offer the school and because I play sport, I used to take hockey in the Winter and cricket in the Summer. I got asked to coach the Midlands and then I got asked to coach England Schoolboys, so it all happened quite quickly (but it was all on an amateur basis.) I did that combined with my teaching until about 1982, when I had to give up all of the hockey coaching because the job in terms of teaching became so demanding. So, when I left teaching and hockey coaching was starting to be paid reasonably well, that’s when I got back into coaching and that’s when I ended up coaching England and Wales and got put into the girls' sections.’

What aspects about being a hockey coach at Cranbrook particularly do you enjoy?

‘Kids are very receptive and it’s just nice to be able to offer your knowledge that you’ve accumulated over the years back to the school.’

Do you think that participation in hockey is encouraged within the school?

‘I think that you have to do it in year 7, 8, 9 and 10 and you get the option in year 11, so you try and make hockey as enjoyable as possible, hoping that they’ll get the bug and continue on right through year 13.’

Cranbook School Girls U14 - winners 2023

Would you say that Cranbrook is a competitive school for hockey?

‘We struggle against the very best independent schools. Sutton Valance is always a very interesting match. I think that we do very well as a state school and I would say that 90% of our fixtures are against the independent sector.’

Do you feel that enough students are involved within the hockey teams across the year groups?

‘Well, you only want those that want to be there, you don’t want the ones that don’t want to be there. You get that a bit in year 10 when they are developing other interests, and hockey is quite a technical game, whereas football is quite an easy thing to master. If your hand-eye coordination isn’t of a good quality, then you are going to struggle with the game as it might be something that you don’t appreciate.’

Why would you encourage students to involve themselves in hockey?

‘I would say particularly hockey because it is a very good social sport, so when you go to university and join those teams, some of them will be your best friends for life. The people that I was at university with, I am still in contact with because we played in cricket and hockey teams together. I would say that six or seven of my contemporaries here in the Cranbrook area, I still meet regularly with, and that’s because of the sport.’ 

So, you would say that hockey is an enjoyable sport for so many of the students because of the social side?

‘Yes, because it has a good social side in that hockey has a clubhouse, where you have tea afterwards. You’ll get connections for jobs and all sorts of things through the hockey club because people come from different backgrounds in there.’

What about hockey do you personally find so enjoyable?

‘I suppose it is the thing that I was best at, so you tend to follow that sort of thing and I guess being a teacher, your ability to persuade others what to do and make it enjoyable for them-at least I hope that I make it enjoyable for them...

You see,the success of people that maybe you started with at 11, ending up getting gold medals in the Olympics through playing hockey and that’s happened to a few of the people that I have coached from that age. There is a sense of satisfaction that you put all the basics in place in order for them to do that.’