By Paul Jones
Jacob Draper has admitted he felt overwhelmed after becoming the first Welsh player to win a European Hockey League title.
The Wales Commonwealth Games and Great Britain international was on the winning side for his club, Pinoke, as they beat fellow Dutch club Kampong, 1-0, in the final.
Pinoke, based in Amsterdam, had won the Dutch domestic league title for the first time last season, but went into the match against their rivals from Utrecht as underdogs.
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Draper – who moved to the Netherlands to play full-time professional hockey two years ago – is the first Welsh player to become a club European champion, the equivalent of football’s Champions League.
“I am completely overwhelmed, to be honest,” said the 25-year-old from Cwmbran.
“If you had asked at the start of the tournament whether we would win it, then I would have said we would like to win it, but I probably didn’t 100 per cent believe we would.
“I played in this a number of years ago for both Cardiff and Hampstead. It’s a dream that I’m now a gold medalist – a dream come true.
“It was quite a cagey game, similar to chess in how we tried to unpick their press. They were also trying to unpick our press.
“Let’s be honest, there were some seriously good players on the pitch. It becomes a game of moments and we delivered on our moments and they probably didn’t deliver on theirs.”
Pinoke went ahead through a goal from Alexander Hendrick and Draper’s side then showed enough defensive quality to hang on and deny the favourites.
Huge Congratulations @JacobDraper98 The first welsh winner of EHL. Check out his reaction here. pic.twitter.com/oY6DjWeWrC
— Hoci Cymru (@HockeyWales) April 1, 2024
Draper added: “It’s horrendous when you have a 1-0 lead, because all the pressure is on you and you have to bring energy to the game. You are looking at the clock every two minutes.
“The clock was going down so slowly. But we managed to defend quite well and eventually get the win.
“The players they have, they are so good – the best in the world – but we have a defensive system that is pretty good and we made some adaptations for them.
“Fortunately for us, it worked out.”
While Draper was becoming a European champion at the weekend, Wales Women lost their Easter three-match series against Scotland, 2-1, in Cardiff.
Scotland took the opening game, 3-1, but Wales levelled with a hard-fought 1-0 victory thanks to a goal from Livvy Hoskins.
But the Scots won the decider at Sophia Gardens, 3-0.
Wales captain Beth Bingham said: It’s obviously disappointing not to win, but we are a young squad coming into this.
“We’ve had one training session together this year so far, so it’s a good start. Like I said, disappointed not to win, but onwards to the summer.”
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