Old Georgians eye another EHL breakthrough as Pinner readies for final chapter

When Old Georgians step onto the turf in Den Bosch next week to face HC Rotterdam in the ABN AMRO Euro Hockey League FINAL8, it won’t just be another milestone for the ambitious English club – there will be a moment of reflection and legacy for goalkeeper George Pinner, who has announced this season will be his last.

The former England and GB international has been at the heart of the club’s meteoric rise, and speaking ahead of the tournament, Pinner shared insight into what the past few seasons have meant for Old Georgians, and how last year’s EHL medal sparked belief that anything is possible.

“We had a very good year last year,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it went beyond expectations because the aims in the club are very high – but reaching the semi-finals in Europe? That was special.”

Old Georgians’ story is one of big and ambition rapid ascension. Formed in the 1990s, they have grown into domestic powerhouses in the past five years and are now legitimate contenders on the European stage. For Pinner, it’s no accident.

“The club sat down years ago with a vision to make the National League in a set number of years,” he recalled. “Then a few years back, they sat down again and said: ‘We want to win the EHL.’ When someone says that to you as a player—it’s very, very inspiring.

“They are relentless in their pursuit of that. They know it won’t happen straight away but they won’t give up trying.”

That belief permeates the whole club, from boardroom to bench, a project which has come with significant investment. It has seen them put together a who’s who of British talent with the likes of Ashley Jackson, Alan Forsyth, Sam Ward, Liam Sanford, Phil Roper, James Albery, David Ames and Ian Sloan among those signing up.

But it is wider collective togetherness that Pinner believes has propelled Old Georgians into the continental spotlight.

“There’s a real club vibe here,” he added. “When you have clubs trying to drive forward the professional element, they think they’re quite soulless places.

“But actually, my experience in the UK of being part of the Holcombe side, being part of this Old Georgians side is that, actually, you have a club where they appreciate the first team, the standard of hockey, the first team appreciate the club and the support. And so you have a group of players trying to do things the right way, trying to pay it back.

“And you have a group of individuals in the club who back it and enjoy doing it. So yeah, I thoroughly enjoy my time off the pitch here, as much as I do on it.”

Last season’s bronze medal winning photo was visual evidence of that connection, the team celebrating in unison with a large travelling crowd who brought the noise to the Wagener Stadium.

That 2024 EHL campaign made waves as they defeated Mannheim, Waterloo Ducks, Club de Campo and Rot-Weiss Köln en route to third place. It is a big difference from his prior EHL campaigns with Beeston – debuting in the EHL in 2009 – and Holcombe where success in ROUND1 was usually followed by a KO16 and KO8 exit and that went in line with expectation.

“I wouldn’t say last season went beyond expectations because our aims in the club are very high,” he said.

“But I know myself, going back to those days and experiences, reaching medal games in the EHL was not the norm. I can only speak for myself, but did I genuinely think as an English club, we could beat those big teams? I’m not sure necessarily the belief was there.

“In the changing rooms, you say to the guys what you always say as a player ‘we can win this, you know, we’ve got what it takes’ but we also needed a fair wind behind us, a bit of luck and our key players to have very good games.

“Last year, was the first time I genuinely believed we didn’t need everything to go perfectly. We just needed solid performances to get the results and that’s what we got.”

Next on the agenda is a mouthwatering date with Rotterdam, a club with a huge pedigree with one silver and three bronze to their name.

“There’s no easy game at this stage. It sounds like a cliché, but it’s true. We will focus on us, what we can do to hurt them, whilst giving them the respect that they deserve.

“But I think we’ve got to where we have done by always focussing on ourselves first and foremost.

“Hopefully, it can be a nice sort of bookend of having watched them [in the EHL] when I was a kid, wanting to play them and then ending my career, hopefully beating Rotterdam and maybe even a couple of more sides before the weekend’s over. We’ll have to wait and see.”

So it’s definitely your final season?

“This is definitely the last one. If the club has an injury crisis next year, maybe! But otherwise, yeah—this is the last hurrah.”

It’s fitting, then, that he gets to write the final chapter of his career as part of one of English hockey’s most exciting modern stories.

Old Georgians’ rise is not just about one season or one player—it’s about what’s possible when vision meets belief, and belief meets hard work.

“You need people with ambition. People who believe. And when that belief starts to spread, it’s amazing what you can achieve.”

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