Carmarthen hockey player selected to represent Wales at World Cup

A sportsman from Carmarthen has been selected to represent Wales in a top international competition.

Craig Jones will be part of the national team at the World Cup of Hockey Masters in Cape Town, South Africa in October.

Currently playing for Carmarthen Athletic Hockey Club, Craig, 51, from St Clears, has to self-fund the trip and is looking for sponsors.

Craig has already had a varied sporting life, having traveled the world coaching the Lawn Tennis Association and working with disabled players.

He also played rugby but had to cut his career short due to a shoulder injury.

At 32, he took up hockey at the suggestion of a friend and currently plays in goal for the Carmarthen Athletic Hockey Club which meets weekly at the Johnstown Leisure Centre.

Craig said: “The club entered the DE Cymru league in 2019 and we currently sit in Division Two after being promoted.

“When the chance to go on trial for Wales came up, I was encouraged by other players to give it a try and it all really fell into place from there.

“There are different age brackets of teams going to Cape Town and I will be in the 50-55 team, but there are multiple age brackets.

“I’m really looking forward to it and hockey is actually a very physical contact game, which people don’t usually think about.

“For me, in goal, it’s really a contact sport and also on the pitch for the players, this hockey ball is very hard, the game moves quickly.”

The World Cup in Cape Town will take place from October 1-10 and is one of four World Cups to be played this year.

The 2020 World Cups have been postponed and canceled, the pandemic has taken hold, but last year World Masters Hockey announced that four tournaments were scheduled for 2022 on as many continents.

The first event will be the World Masters Hockey (WMH) Indoor Hockey World Cup in the United States in February, with further World Cups taking place in Nottingham in August, followed by South Africa and Tokyo in October.

Anyone wishing to find out more about the Carmarthen Athletic Hockey Club is welcome to attend a training session.

The club meets every Tuesday evening between 7.30pm and 9pm at the Carmarthen Leisure Center in Llansteffan Road, Johnstown.

Any company or organization wishing to sponsor Craig on his World Cup adventure can contact journalist Ian Lewis on ian.lewis@walesonline.co.uk

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