Personality profile ASHLEY’S home goal
Trying to snatch a few minutes with a sporting superstar is no mean feat. Especially when that star is Ashley Jackson, record goalscorer for Great Britain and one of world hockey’s current ‘hot shots!’
Some children are said to be born with a silver spoon in their mouths. When Ashley Jackson made his entrance into the world, in August 1987, he was most probably presented with a hockey stick. If not, it wasn’t long after as, by the age of two and a half, he was whizzing about on the ice with his ice-hockey playing
grandfather and uncle. The Jackson family were well known
for their prowess on the ice and it was an accepted part of growing up for Medway-born Ashley and his brother Wesley that most weekends were spent supporting the teams for which they played.
Ashley’s education began at Fairview Primary School, Gillingham, but when the family moved to Tunbridge Wells, he switched to Rose Hill Preparatory School, from where he progressed to Sutton Valence, near Maidstone, at 13.
The sports scholarship Ashley
Jane Shotliff caught up with Ashley as he prepared to play in the 2015 EuroHockey Championships at the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre, at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
was awarded by the prestigious private school was the real driving force the teenager needed to set him on a path which was to take up the majority of his waking hours then — just like now.
Amazingly, Ashley hadn’t wielded a
conventional hockey stick before starting at Sutton Valence — ice hockey plays off the left hand as opposed to the right — but his past experience and techniques clearly stood him in good stead as he rapidly soared into the school’s hockey record books.
While at SVS, he represented Kent,
South of England and England at U16 and then went on to represent England Hockey at U21 level, while captaining the school’s 1st XI.
Mid Kent Living 7
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64