After suffering crushing defeats at the hands of Pakistan at the Sydney and
Athens Olympic Games, Great Britain's men were hoping for a much-improved
display today, when they opened their campaign against the three-times gold
medal-winners. Watching the match from the BBC Television commentary
position was Sean Kerly, a member of the victorious 1988 squad, who avoided
a clash against the famous “Green Shirts” in Seoul.
Twenty years ago in the Seongnam Stadium, Britain enjoyed their finest hour in
the modern era. It was late afternoon and having just beaten West Germany
3-1, 16 men threw their arms in the air to celebrate a thrilling victory and
a wonderful achievement in winning the gold medal.
Their triumph did as much to revive Britain's fortunes as it did to restore
faith in the Olympic ideal as the team, a blend of doctors, bank clerks,
newsagents and teachers, completed a fairytale end to a journey that had
started in Los Angeles four years earlier. They won the bronze medal in
1984, before losing in the World Cup final two years later - the foundations
had been laid. The media were alerted something special could happen in
South Korea and, in the age of full-time athletes, the men who gave up their
jobs to compete exceeded all expectations.
If England football teams are tired of hearing about the 1966 World Cup
triumph, so too are hockey players when it comes to 1988 and the pressure
remains on the present generation to emulate these heroes. Here, Kerly,
Richard Leman, Stephen Batchelor and David Faulkner recall a remarkable
fortnight in Korea in 1988.
SB When I first arrived in the Olympic Village, I thought, “Oh my
goodness, have I really got to spend two weeks with Russell Garcia. He was
always doing his hair - he even went to the women's team to do theirs!”
Garcia, a trainee hairdresser, was a surprise choice and the baby of the
squad, at 18. He remains the youngest male hockey gold medal-winner (18
years and 103 days).
DF On one of the first days in the village, I remember stepping off a
pavement and nearly being run over by Steffi Graf, who was riding a bicycle
with a whole lot of tennis rackets on the front. We also received our
accreditation at the same time as Ben Johnson - little did we know he would
win the 100metres and then be done for drugs.
SB Going into the canteen was an amazing experience. There was always
someone famous and I sat next to Boris Becker once.
RL It was all the shapes and sizes of athletes that struck me - from
tiny Angolan boxers to weightlifters and so on.
DF And then we heard goalkeeper Ian Taylor had been chosen to carry the
flag at the opening ceremony, so that was special. We also all remember him
sitting on the balcony and smoking a pipe after matches. He always did that
and we used to joke that it was a pity we never had a rocking chair, too.
RL We were raring to get going and start playing and, at one practice,
Kerly [a striker] and Paul Barber, a defender, had a huge row and were
incredibly aggressive with each other. It was always the same.
SK Yeah, we'd been like that for years. But I remember throwing up some
fly spray to Garcia on the balcony and when it landed, the top flew off and
the spray went all over the place, giving him a bit of a fright. He leapt up
and hit his head on a wall and knocked himself out - that put him out of
contention for the first few matches.
In the first game against Korea, Britain threw away a two-goal lead and drew
2-2.
SK I came over to the bench and had a furious exchange with manager
Roger Self. I was disappointed with the selection, told him I'd expected to
win and that we'd shipped easy goals.
SB I didn't start the game because during our build-up in Hong Kong, I
had been left out and during the warm-up had deliberately hit balls at Self!
RL The result made no difference to our spirits. But what people forget
is that they had a penalty corner with two minutes to go and scored from it,
only for it to be disallowed. I couldn't honestly see why, and that decision
turned out to be crucial.
Against West Germany in the group stage, the scores were level at 1-1 with a
little more than a minute left when a controversial penalty awarded by Don
Prior, the Australian umpire, enabled the Germans to win 2-1.
DF Paul Barber was absolutely furious and told Prior that if GB didn't
make the final, he'd come and find him, or words to that effect!
Recovering to beat Soviet Union and India, Britain faced Australia, the
pre-tournament favourites, in the semi-final. With less than two minutes
remaining and the scores level at 2-2, Kerly completed his hat-trick.
SK I don't remember the goals that well, but I do recall pushing in to
the circle and after Kulbir Bhaura mis-trapped the ball, I went after it and
had a shot which I thought had hit the post - but it turned out to be the
winner. I remember the Aussies swearing at us all the through the match and
I think most people forget how many crucial saves Taylor made in goal.
DF We couldn't find Garcia afterwards and I went and found him sitting
on the back boards of the goal crying his eyes out.
SK Before the final, Barber made a fantastic team talk as one of the
senior players. I was moved to tears because it was the culmination of so
much effort, and everything we'd done had been geared towards the moment. We
had to find something extra, but we'd been together for eight years and had
knocked lumps out of each other, but still had huge respect for one another.
SB Towards the end of the final, I remember the incredible sight of
Veryan Pappin and Sam Martin coming on with about a minute left - as they
hadn't played at all, they wouldn't have been awarded medals. That was
amazing and they'd done so much to help us. I went ballistic after I set up
Imran Sherwani, who made it 3-0 and charged over to the bench. And all the
manager did was wag his finger and told me to get on with it.
And their best memories?
RL It was just brilliant. We'd come through so much as a group and were
such good friends. The celebrations were incredible - apparently we drank
171 bottles of champagne and drank the Hilton in Seoul dry.
DF When you go to any tournament, you have good and bad games, but our
best performance was in the final.
SK Getting to the final and not losing. I'd packed up work and I walked away
from the Olympic experience knowing I'd achieved my dream.
SB They can never take it away from me, and that's nice. I was known as
the joker in the team, but for me it was the whole experience - the biggest
sporting event in the world and there we were with all the other sports.
Where are they now?
Ian Taylor Lives in Somerset, recently left the post of chief executive
officer at London Irish rugby club.
Veryan Pappin Lives in United Arab Emirates, chief executive officer of
an adventure company specialising in scuba diving, 4x4 dune rides, etc.
David Faulkner Performance director of Great Britain Hockey. Lives in
Portsmouth
Paul Barber Lives in Bath, director of Rydon Homes.
Martyn Grimley Lives in Cheshire, company director.
Sam Martin Chief executive officer of Irish Olympic Association, in
Belfast.
Jimmy Kirkwood Lives in Belfast, works for HSBC.
Jon Potter Based in Connecticut, US, global brand director for Diageo.
Richard Leman Lives in East Grinstead, chief executive officer of Gold
Group, a recruitment company, president of GB Hockey and director of the BOA.
Richard Dodds Consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Royal Berkshire
Hospital, Reading
Robert Clift Lives in Bedford, works for HSBC.
Russell Garcia Hockey coach in Hamburg, Germany.
Stephen Batchelor Deputy housemaster at Cranleigh School.
Kulbir Bhaura Chief executive officer of sports retailer in London.
Sean Kerly Lives in Herne Bay, partner in marketing consultancy.
Imran Sherwani Works in financial services in the Midlands.
The Germany women's team served an early warning of their determination to
hang on to their Olympic hockey crown by thrashing Great Britain 5-1 in
Beijing. It was Britain's worst start to an Olympic tournament since South
Korea beat them 5-0 in Atlanta in 1996. Danny Kerry, the Britain coach, said
that his team had plenty to do to pick the squad up before tomorrow's match
against Argentina. “We were off our game in a few areas and we'll look hard
at that and address it constructively,” he said. “But we won't be dwelling
on the defeat.”
