It was in a meeting room at Bisham Abbey, amid the ashes of a dismal 2014 World Cup campaign for the England team from which most of Great Britain’s women’s hockey side is drawn, that the foundations for a golden era were laid.
An 11th-placed finish at that tournament at The Hague proved the catalyst for the return of the inspirational coach Danny Kerry and the captain, Kate Richardson-Walsh, to come out of semi-retirement for one last crack at gold.
Two years later they were dancing in a Rio hotel to We Are The Champions having pulled off a dramatic shootout victory over the reigning champions, the Netherlands, in the Olympic final, following a tournament that featured eight straight wins.
“We sat round and people got things off their chest, things that were frustrating,” recalls Hollie Webb, who scored the decisive penalty shuffle that sent her team-mates and upwards of nine million viewers watching back home into raptures.
“Looking back now it was horrific at the time but we learned from it and got to where we are now,” she said.
Almost to a woman, all of those who celebrated wildly on the blue Deodoro pitch referenced both Kerry – a tactical “magician” according to Alex Danson – and their captain, Richardson-Walsh, as key factors in their success.
On the morning after the night before the defender Sam Quek said the newly retired captain, who will go off to play club hockey in Holland with her wife and GB team-mate, Helen Richardson-Walsh, was irreplaceable.
“Kate is a one-off. There will not be another leader like Kate. She is just an inspiration to everyone. Everything she does is so thorough. She is the most caring, thoughtful person in the world,” she said. “But at the same time, if you put a little foot out of line or you need your socks pulling up, she’ll be first to say so.”
But the other theme that comes through is the bond created during the long hours of training at Bisham Abbey – where they installed an exact replica of the Rio pitch and endlessly drilled for every eventuality – as a development squad of 31.
“I can’t describe the feeling. We are a group of 31 people that has been put together. We wouldn’t necessarily be best friends outside hockey as we’re all different personalities. We’ve all been put together and I think it’s so special how we all work together and are so close because of it,” said Webb.
“And we all compete against each other. I am competing against Sam for the same position and yet I want her to do well as well. I can think of hardly any other situations where you get that.”
In the wake of victory Danson also tried to sum up the shared values that had been drummed into them in the long hours at Bisham Abbey .
“We set our stall out. We wanted to create history. We wanted to inspire the future and we wanted to be the difference. It’s about having a team with a set of values, a vision, that you dare to put out there. We probably spent hours and hours of our programme back at Bisham in meetings, talking about how we want to be and what we want to deliver on. That’s aside from the tactics, that’s on top,” she said.
““I believe more than anything that’s what has won us the medal here. It’s the 31 girls at home, it’s every person who has ever put on a GB shirt and it’s a magician who has put the tactics together.”
For Webb there is a neat symmetry in the fact that she was inspired to play hockey as a nine-year-old watching Richardson-Walsh in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and will now have the opportunity to capitalise on the huge boost in exposure offered the sport as a result of their prime-time victory.
“That’s the thing I’m most excited about. It’s not the medal we got last night, which is obviously incredible. If you look on social media, it’s the people back home that have been inspired by us and by watching us,” she said.
“We’ve had messages like: ‘I am going to dig my old hockey stick and get back into it.’ That is the most special thing for me. People are now noticing hockey. They’ve seen it on the TV and loved it and want to get involved with it. It’s amazing.”
As Britain’s women thrived, however, Britain’s men floundered, failing to progress from the group stage. Barry Middleton’s side finished above only the hosts, Brazil, whom they beat 9-1 for their sole win from five games. Two draws and two defeats in their other matches meant Britain made an early exit from the tournament.
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