Simon Orchard

Simon Orchard

Simon Orchard (left) with David Condon
Personal information
Nationality	Australia
Born	9 July 1986 Muswellbrooks, NSW
Residence	Perth, WA
Height	186 cm (6 ft 1 in)[1]
Weight	78 kg (12 st 4 lb)
Sport
Country	Australia
Sport	Field hockey
Event(s)	Men's team
Medal record Men's field hockey Representing  Australia Olympic Games 2012 London Team World Cup 2010 New Delhi Team 2014 The Hague Team Champions Trophy 2009 Melbourne Team 2012 Melbourne Team 2014 Bhubaneswar Team Hockey at the Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi Team 2014 Glasgow Team

Simon Orchard (born July 1986) is an Australian field hockey player. He plays for New South Wales in the Australian Hockey League. He is a member of the Australia men's national field hockey team and has won several medals with them including gold at the 2009 Men's Hockey Champions Trophy, gold at the 2010 Men's Hockey World Cup and gold at the 2010 and 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Personal

Orchard was born in July 1986 in Muswellbrook, New South Wales.^[2][3][4] His hobbies include playing golf and playing his guitar.^[2] He took up hockey at the age of 11.^[5]

Field hockey

Orchard plays for New South Wales in the Australian Hockey League.^[4] He played in a June 2010 game for the New South Wales against the Tassie Tigers that New South Wales won 6-3. He scored a goal in the game.^[6]

National team

Orchard is a member of the Kookaburras. In January 2008, he made his senior national team debut at the Five Nations men's hockey tournament in South Africa.^[2][7][8] He represented Australia at the 2009 Champions Trophy, where his team earned a gold medal.^[2] New national team coach Ric Charlesworth named him, a returning member, alongside fourteen total new players who had few than 10 national team caps to the squad before in April 2009 in a bid to ready the team for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.^[9] In 2010, he won a gold medal at the World Cup.^[2] He represented Australia at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. In the gold medal match against India that Australia won 8-0, he scored a goal.^[2][10] In May 2011, he played in the Azlan Shah Cup for Australia. The Cup featured teams from Pakistan, Malaysia, India, South Korea, Britain and New Zealand.^[11] In December 2011, he was named as one of twenty-eight players to be on the 2012 Summer Olympics Australian men's national training squad. This squad was narrowed in June 2012. He trained with the team from 18 January to mid-March in Perth, Western Australia.^[12][13][14] In February during the training camp, he played in a four nations test series with the teams being the Kookaburras, Australia A Squad, the Netherlands and Argentina.^[3] He played for the Kookoaburras against Argentina in the second game of the series where his team won 3-1. He scored a goal for his team.^[15] In another game against Argentina at the same competition, his team won 4-0 and he scored a goal.^[16] He was selected to play for Australia in the 2012 Summer Olympics, scoring two goals, including one in the bronze medal match where Australia beat Great Britain 3-1.^[17][18]

Recognition

In 2010, Orchard earned the Kookaburra's 2010 Player of the Year award, an award he shared with Eddie Ockenden.^[4]

References

1. "Simon Orchard". london2012.olympics.com.au. Australian Olympic Committee. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
2. "Athlete Spotlight : Australian Institute of Sport : Australian Sports Commission". Australian Institute of Sport. 2 August 2010. Retrieved 2012-03-16.
3. "Kookaburras begin their Olympic Games Campaign". Perth, Western Australia: Hockey Australia. 7 February 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
4. Clifford, Adam (16 August 2011). "Eddie's triumph consoles Tigers". Hobart Mercury (Australia). p. 45. Retrieved 16 March 2012.
5. "Glasgow 2014 - Simon Orchard Profile". g2014results.thecgf.com. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
6. "scoreboard". Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia). 21 June 2010. p. 49. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
7. "Bulletin Wire: Fresh faces for next Kookaburras tour". Bulletin Wire (Australia: Financial Times Information Limited - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire). 20 December 2007. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
8. "Kookas stick by Tassie duo". Hobart Mercury (Hobart, Australia). 21 December 2007. p. 59. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
9. "Carroll, Abbott in new-look Kookaburras". Northern Territory News (Darwin, Australia). 15 April 2009. p. 46. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
10. Srivastava, Abhaya (14 October 2010). "Australia rout India to win fourth men's hockey gold". Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney). Retrieved 9 March 2012.
11. Singh, Ajitpal (26 April 2011). "New Straits Times (Malaysia): Aussies look powerful despite injury woes". New Straits Times (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). Retrieved 16 March 2012.
12. AAP (14 December 2011). "Kookaburras name training squad for 2012 Olympic Games". Sydney: Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
13. "FOR THE RECORD". The Australian (Sydney, Australia). 15 December 2011. p. 35. AUS_T-20111215-1-035-447690. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
14. "SCOREBOARD". Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia). 15 December 2011. p. 116. DTM_T-20111215-1-116-447684. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
15. AAP (11 February 2012). "Kookaburras soar past Argentina". Australia: Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
16. "Una gira sin alegría para la selección masculina" (in Spanish). Canchallena.com. 20 February 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
17. "Simon Orchard Bio, Stats, and Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
18. Arena, Piers Newbery BBC Sport at the Riverbank. "Olympics hockey: Australia beat Great Britain to men's bronze". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2016-03-10.