Steve Hossack on Barry Middleton, Lionesses and an unforgettable Doncaster Rovers pre-season supplement

Middleton stepped down from international hockey just over three years ago after making a record 432 appearances in either an England or Great Britain shirt – many wearing the captain’s armband.

One of his last appearances in a major international tournament was the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast where England just finished outside the medals in fourth place.

Arguably, Middleton, who captained the GB side in the 2012 Olympics in London where they came fourth, as well as featuring in three other Olympics, four World championships and eight European Championships, would have come into contention for a place in the current England squad had he not stepped down from the international scene when still at the top of his game.

Despite his achievements on the world stage, Middleton has never forgotten his roots and has regularly come back to play for the Old Boys X1 against the current first team of Doncaster Hall Cross on the day of the school’s annual hockey dinner.

Due to the fact that I ran a weekly school sport column in The Star for many years, I was regularly invited to attend the dinner during which the respective captains of the various teams would give a review of their season.

That’s where I first came across the young Middleton, who I interviewed years later on a visit to the club where he played top-flight National League hockey while still in his teens prior to moving on to greater things - little knowing at the time that he would go on to become one of Doncaster’s all-time sporting greats.

You could make an argument that had Middleton gone to any other school in Doncaster other than the former grammar, who continued to play rugby union and hockey as their two main sports, then there would have been a possibility that his sporting career could have gone in a different direction.

But the fact that both his parents were prominent members of Doncaster Hockey Club and helped out with the junior coaching, meant hockey was always going to be a big pull.

Middleton was also fortunate to have several members of staff who played first team level for the hockey club – with whom the school had close links – including Yorkshire and North defender Mike Cattrall.

*Belated congratulations to England’s women footballers, several of whom have connections with Doncaster Rovers Belles, on their recent victory in the Euros - even though I wasn’t one of the reported 17m who tuned in to watch the final.

I’ve watched very little football since reporting on my final Doncaster Rovers game at Preston many years ago for various reasons - nothing to do with Rovers - and I wasn’t particularly interested in a tournament which for most of its existence has attracted little publicity in this country.

Although I didn’t watch any of the games it was almost impossible to avoid hearing or reading about England’s prospects of ‘bringing football home.’

Most, though not all, of the people I’ve spoken to in recent days (most had previously seen little women’s football) told me that they had enjoyed the tournament and had been impressed by the quality on show.

Having covered a number of Belles’ games over the years I had come across a number of women footballers who impressed me including the likes of Belles’ Vicky Exley, Gill Coultard, Sue Smith and Karen Walker and Arsenal’s Rachel Yankey. But the overall standard of the games were often no better than a typical men’s Sunday League match.

The weakness with the game at the time, I felt, was the standard of goalkeeping. Too many keepers lacked the height to keep out a rising shot on target or a looping header. It was often too easy to score.

It seems inevitable, given the success of the Lionesses and the TV ratings, that the women’s game will go to another level and that WSL attendances, which prior to the tournament some cynics will claim hardly justified the TV coverage, will show a significant increase.

I also suspect that clubs at a much lower level, including Belles, will also see their gates increase over the next couple of years with next year’s World Cup Down Under helping to retain, and possibly boost interest, if England do well.

What is not in doubt is that many more young girls will want to take up the sport which could have significant consequences for more traditional female sports such as athletics, swimming, tennis, netball etc.

*The football pre-season was always one of the most stressful times of the year for me having to produce a 24-page Rovers supplement full of new material at the same time as filling the paper.

What often made things worse was that the manager and players didn’t report back until the start of July and within a few days often went away for a week.

It was always a race against time to meet the next deadline.

On most occasions the positive reaction from colleagues and readers made the draining 18-hour days over a two to three-week period at the height of summer almost seem worthwhile.

Whenever I reflect on those publications, quite a few of which I’ve kept, it is not the ones which I am proud of which I mainly recall but the one which went disastrously wrong.

I never quite got to the bottom of what happened but the staff photographer who had been at Belle Vue during pre-season to take a new team photo featuring all the new signings, was asked to take a picture of some young men who had been giving the stadium a lick of paint as he walked off the pitch.

He did as he was asked but instead of setting up the picture he just took a couple of shots of them as they lounged on the pitch in the sun in their overalls.

The photos were submitted to the production department to be processed along with those taken of the Doncaster players with the idea of giving them to the club.

But to our horror when the supplement came out a few days later instead of the Rovers team photo filling the front page it was the picture of the painters!

You can guess the club’s negative reaction!