Hockey: Reid and Hacker honoured

CAROLYN REID, the Hightown and England goalkeeper, and David Hacker, the Canterbury centre-half and Welsh captain, received the Hockey Writers' UK Player of the Year awards at a reception in London yesterday.

Reid, 26, becomes the third Hightown player to receive the award following Linda Carr and Maggie Souyave, the current England coach. The schoolmistress at St Nicholas Roman Catholic School in Northwich established herself with a string of outstanding performances as the first-choice keeper outdoors at last year's World Cup in Utrecht and went on to win a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia.

The gold medal winner at the 1996 European Indoor Cup is now setting her sights on this summer's European Cup in Germany and then a selection for the Olympics to add to her one Great Britain appearance so far.

Wales' David Hacker became the first non-English player to win the men's award. Hacker collected a host of honours with Hounslow including the League Championship and the HA Cup four times as well as the European Cup-Winners' Cup.

Now in his fifth season with Canterbury, Hacker, a schoolmaster at Millfield School, has played a pivotal role in taking the Kent side to the top of the English game. Canterbury lead this year's campaign, two points ahead of Cannock.

Hacker, an inspirational captain of Wales with over 100 caps, also stepped into the coach's role at the Commonwealth Games in September when David Bunyan was unable to travel because of his fear of flying.