Cambridge City Hockey Club men’s first team under new coaching regime as Conor Annand takes charge

New head coach Conor Annand is relishing the challenge of leading Cambridge City Hockey Club’s men’s first team.

From the outside looking in it would appear to be a tough task for Annand, who was part of the City side that was relegated from the England Hockey Division One North last term with only one victory from 18 outings.

A handful of players – including Nat Farrant – have since moved on to pastures new, yet ahead of the 2024/25 campaign starting in September, Annand is excited to get going.

He said: “I believe in this group of players. Nat has moved on to play in the National League and we wish him well, but overall we’ve not lost anyone I wanted to keep.

“We’ve got some good players – and others returning from university – and I’d say overall we’re in a similar position to where we were two years ago in terms of strength in depth.

“I’m optimistic we have enough to be challenging to get the team back to the level of hockey they should be playing at.

“We want to be the premier provider of hockey in East Anglia and with the group we’ve got I believe we can be that again.”

At the age of 27, Annand is likely to be one of – if the not the youngest – head coaches in the division.

But he has plenty of coaching experience from his day job as head of boys’ hockey at Ipswich School alongside his role on the England Pathway.

“I feel ready to make the step up and ultimately I want to be coaching in the National League,” he added. “I’m still quite young but it’s logically the next step for me to make in my career.”

And it also remains to be seen if Annand will continue to feature as a player.

He said: “I’ll do the very best I can to be able to play, but first and foremost my role as head coach is most important. If I can play at the same time then brilliant, but the coaching side of things is what I have to make sure I get right.”