HOW HOCKEY AND
A SMALL SCHOOL
HELPED IN THE
MAKING OF ROOT
Worksop College may
not be as famous as Eton
but, as Tom Cary reveals,
it can boast that it has
produced England
captains in two different
sports this summer
T
en years on, Trevor
Franse can still recall
a schoolboy Joe Root
unfurling a stunning,
match-winning shot
as if it happenedyesterday. “Someone chipped the
ball,” he recalls. “Joe received it
from a standing position, reverse-
sticked it, trapped it, turned
around and smashed it into the
goal – 4-3 winner.”
For any confused cricket fans,
the game Root was playing was
hockey. Franse was the hockey
coach. And the bit of skill was for
Worksop College first XI against
Bromsgrove.
Much has been written about
the England captain’s formative
years; his childhood in Dore,
playing for Sheffield Collegiate,
blunting Yorkshire League attacks
alongside father Matt and younger
brother Billy.
But not a lot has been written
about Root’s time at Worksop, a
small co-ed independent school on
the northern edge of Sherwood
Forest, where Root spent his
sixth-form days as a weekly
boarder on a cricket scholarship.
Or, indeed, about the part that
hockey might have played in the
England captain’s meteoric rise. It
seems fair to surmise that it played
at least some role. Not least
because of the sheer quality of the
hockey on offer at Worksop.
While Root will lead out England
in the first Test at Edgbaston today,
in two weeks’ time another former
Worksop alumnus, Adam Dixon,
will captain England’s hockey team
in the European Championships
(Aug 16-25) as they seek to qualify
for Tokyo 2020. Two England
captains in two sports is rare for
any school, let alone one of only
450 pupils. And Dixon will have
Ollie Willars, Sam Ward and Tom
Sorsby – all Old Worksopians – for
company in Belgium.
Franse, a South African who
arrived at the school in 2003 to
teach chemistry and hockey, says
he is at a loss to explain exactly
why the school has produced so
many internationals, although he
does not deny recruitment did play
a part. “The headmaster Roy
Collard, who retired seven years
ago, was a big supporter [of sport],”
Franse says. “If we said: ‘This kid’s
come along. We’d love him. If there
are any scholarships available ...’
He would usually sort it.”
Franse reckons in any given year
they would have maybe three to
four hockey scholars. But that is
not unusual among top schools,
many of whom were far more
ruthless when it came to recruiting
players. What Worksop had in
spades, he believes, was spirit.
Dixon, who arrived in the lower
sixth in September 2003, the same
term that Franse arrived, notes that
the school may have been small,
but it always punched above its
weight in sporting terms.
He recalls pictures hanging in
the corridors of former pupils who
had gone on to achieve sporting
success. The Buckner brothers,
Jack and Tom (both Olympians),
Bill Foster (international marathon
runner), Phil Sharpe (Yorkshire and
England cricket), Nim Hall
(England rugby captain post-war),
Samit Patel and Billy Root (cricket).
“We were just a small North
Notts school,” says the 32-year-old,
who like Root arrived on a
scholarship. “Quite humble. Quite
a few had arrived from other
schools, been kicked out or
whatever. I think that made us
fighters. We had great spirit.
Especially when we came up
against the bigger schools. We
were desperate to win the bragging
rights. And we looked out for each
other. We’d fight for each other.
I certainly think that attitude
helped me transition to the
international set-up, and it may
have been the same for Joe.”
Dixon left a couple of years
before Root arrived, so they never
played together. But he admires his
opposite number’s character. “The
incident where he stood up to theWell prepared:
Joe Root with the
Ashes urn he
hopes to be
holding at the
end of the series;
with his Worksop
College team (top
right); and (left)
England men’s
hockey captain
Adam DixonThe Ashes
4 *** Thursday 1 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
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