It’s celebration time for England Hockey’s women, including two players with a Durham connection.

It was a 2-1 score line that brought England Hockey its first ever Commonwealth gold – and one of those goals came from Durham alumna Tess Howard.

Fiona Crackles (right)

Tess had returned to the England squad, which also called upon Durham student Fiona Crackles’ skills for the final, following a serious knee injury that saw her ruled out of the delayed Tokyo Olympics.

To miss out on last summer was devastating, but it gave me a lot of time to realise how much I wanted this. I didn’t think a gold medal would be the dream but it was always the dream for me in rehab.

“Every hamstring bridge, every single leg jump trying to get my knee back working, the last three months have been a whirlwind. To stand here now with a gold medal is a dream come true.”

The victory over Australia in Birmingham was a confident one, despite the visitors’ formidable reputation, and brings a further boost to women’s sport in England following recent jubilant scenes at the Euro 2022 final.

Fiona Crackles

Gareth Weaver-Tyler, Performance Hockey Coach at Durham told Dialogue: 

It was incredible to see the success of the England Hockey women's squad at the Commonwealth Games, winning gold for the first time. It was made even more special that current student Fiona Crackles and alumna Tess Howard were both part of the successful squad and that both then returned to Durham with the England Squad to take part in the European Qualifiers at the end of August where we were able to congratulate them in person. 

England Captain Hollie Pearne-Webb said: “We saw what the Lionesses did last week, they were hugely inspirational for us and we watched them. To be on that women’s team sport movement is a privilege and I’m so happy we can be part of it. We had a video message from Leah [Williamson], which was amazing.”

Hollie added: “The support has been incredible. This has never been achieved by an England hockey team before, so it’s just so special.”

Alumna Tess Howard (middle) with a group of children