Olympic joy as club makes list

An Olympic team could make their home in Cannock for the London 2012 Olympics after the town's hockey club was selected as a potential training ground.

Bosses at Cannock Cricket and Hockey Club are celebrating the news after organisers named them in a list of 600 sites in the UK which will be presented to foreign teams at this year's Beijing Games.

They will then choose where they plan to base themselves ahead of the Games in 2012.

The selection could mean a major boost to the club, which will now have to prove its worth in order to attract a team to make their base in the town.

Officials at the club, based in Church Lane, Hatherton, are now working hard to ensure their state-of-the-art ground is up to scratch.

Work could start later this year on a second water-based pitch at the club which is the equivalent of Wimbledon grass in the hockey world.

Ian Macpherson, secretary of the club, said it was too early to say Cannock would definitely host a team but he said: "We are pleased that we have been selected and we are hopeful we can attract a national team to train here.

"We are waiting for a bit more information on what this will mean financially."

He added: "We have been supported by England Hockey and we are already known in Europe."

Hosting international teams is nothing new to the club which has welcomed Australia and Pakistan to the ground in the past, along with teams from Europe.

Mr Macpherson added: "We have been hearing rumours that a national side could base themselves in the West Midlands, in Birmingham or in Stoke-on-Trent, but we don't which teams are coming."

Cannock Cricket and Hockey Club currently has approximately 300 players.