ALDERSHOT & Farnham Hockey Club have appointed Ian Jennings MBE as men’s first team coach for the 2016/17 season.

‘Jenno’ Jennings, 54, who has lived locally for over 35 years, gained 38 caps for England during his international career and has also coached England women’s teams and England U21 and U18 sides.

He also played for Guildford and was a long-serving coach of the Conference West club.

His main focus at A&F will be elite development of the men’s section to enable the club to push for promotions and help players achieve their full potential. He will fit in this new position around his current duties for Indian Gymkhana.

He said: “Aldershot & Farnham are a growing grassroots club with exciting goals. But they don’t just have a great vision – they have a willingness and capacity to achieve. My role will be to guide them in the strategies and skills necessary for them to reach and exceed these goals.”

He added: “They are also my local club and I often run across the guys in town. I’d like to think I’m putting something back into the community. It will also be nice to only have to travel three minutes to home games.”

Aldershot & Farnham put out 30 teams and host almost 350 juniors at their weekly Sunday Hockey Academy. They are England Hockey ClubsFirst accredited and are based both at Heath End School, Farnham and the Army Hockey Centre, Aldershot.

“Hockey is an amazingly inclusive sport,” said club chairman Nigel Oates. “We field junior girls and boys sides from almost 60 local schools and colleges, senior men’s and ladies, mixed sides and vets. Our members range from six years to 60. We aspire, but we have always been a grounded club. We support everyone in growing steadily to the best of their ability as far as we are able.

“We now feel we are ready and in a position to raise the bar even further and Jenno, as a local hero, has the skills, knowledge, experience and respect to help us do it. He also happened to score 276 National League goals, so we are especially looking forward to him putting that level of performance back into action, but this time in an Aldershot & Farnham shirt.”

Aldershot & Farnham are holding their HockeyFest Club Days very soon: for senior hockey on September 3 at Heath End School and for junior hockey on September 4 at The Army Hockey Centre, Aldershot.

For further information, email [email protected] or visit the website www.afhockey.com