Calum Giles (born 27 October 1972) is a former Great Britain Olympic

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

player, who competed at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, and the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

in Sydney. His scoring success was primarily due to his expertise at executing the

Penalty corner In field hockey, a penalty corner, sometimes known as a short corner, is a penalty given against the defending team. It is predominantly awarded for a defensive infringement in the ''Field hockey pitch#Penalty circle, penalty circle'' or for a de ...

Biography

Giles started his hockey career at the age of five playing for OPCS in Portsmouth. He made his national league debut at the age of 18 playing club hockey for

Havant Havant ( ) is a town in the south-east corner of Hampshire, England. Nearby places include Portsmouth to the south-west, Southampton to the west, Waterlooville to north, Chichester to the east and Hayling Island to the south. The wider borough ...

in the

Men's England Hockey League The Men's England Hockey League is a field hockey league organised by England Hockey that features men's teams from England and Wales. Format Regular season There are 62 teams in the league, the top tier consists of a Premier Division of ...

in 1991. During his time at Havant he also coached at Worthing Hockey Club, made his International debut at the age of 23 playing for England in 1995 and represented

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. At the 1995 European Cup Giles became the first English player to win a top goal scorer award in a major competition. After the Olympics, Giles moved to play his hockey in the Netherlands for HC Klein Zwitserland, participating in the

1998 Men's Hockey World Cup The 1998 Men's Hockey World Cup was the ninth edition of the Men's Hockey World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national field hockey teams organized by the International Hockey Federation. It was held alongside the women's to ...

before returning to England to join Southgate for the 1998/99 season. He left Southgate to join

Surbiton Surbiton is a suburban neighbourhood in South West London, within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (RBK). It is next to the River Thames, southwest of Charing Cross. Surbiton was in the Historic counties of England, historic county of ...

for the 1999/2000 season and while at Surbiton, he represented

at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. He retired from international hockey in 2000 after collecting 143 caps for England and Great Britain and scoring 110 international goals. He was England and Great Britain's highest goalscorer for over 14 years. After retiring from International hockey he pursued a coaching career and became a full-time player-coach to

Oxted Oxted is a town and civil parish in the Tandridge District, Tandridge district of Surrey, England. It is at the foot of the North Downs, south-east of Croydon, west of Sevenoaks, and north of East Grinstead. Oxted is a commuter town and Ox ...

. After several years he gained the club promotion to the National League for the first time in their history. Following his time at Oxted he re-joined his childhood club

as player-coach where he in two years he managed to take them back to the pinnacle of English hockey for the 2007/2008 season, managing to end the season 4th in the Men's Premier Division. Following one season at Plymouth Marjon he became Director of hockey at Teddington Hockey Club, promoting the men's first team back to National league status in his first season. In 2014, he took on the role of Professional Hockey Coach at Eltham College. He was head of hockey at the school and ran his highly successful Stickwise hockey camps there. In the summer of 2015, Giles was appointed Head Coach of Blackheath & Old Elthamians Hockey Club. In his first season, he successfully led this team to promotion to the South Premier League and to the final of the England Hockey Trophy. Blackheath & Old Elthamians won the trophy the following season. In 2023, he became a coach at

Worth School Worth School is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private co-educational Roman Catholic boarding school, boarding and day school, day school for pupils from 11 to 18 years of age near Worth, West Sussex, Worth, West Sussex, England. Unti ...

in Crawley, where he runs the Stickwise camps.

International achievements

*1995 – European Cup, Dublin* *1995 –

Champions Trophy The ICC Champions Trophy, formerly known as the ICC Knock Out Trophy, is an international One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) contested by international men's teams. Inaugurat ...

, Berlin *1996 – Olympic Qualifier, Barcelona *1996 –

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

, Atlanta *1998 – World Cup, Utrecht *1999 –

, Brisbane *1999 – European Cup, Padova *2000 – Olympic Qualifier, Osaka *2000 –

, Amsterdam *2000 –

, Sydney

References

External links

*
Stickwise
{{DEFAULTSORT:Giles, Callum Living people Sportspeople from Portsmouth English male field hockey players Olympic field hockey players for Great Britain British male field hockey players Field hockey players at the 1996 Summer Olympics 1998 Men's Hockey World Cup players Field hockey players at the 2000 Summer Olympics 1972 births Havant Hockey Club players