By 
DAVID Ames’ decision not to retire completely as a player after the Paris Olympics has been vindicated this season.
The Cookstown man came close to calling time on his illustrious playing career after representing Team GB at three Olympic Games, while also racking up over 200 caps for Ireland, England and GB in the process.
In the end, however, he decided he wanted to play on for as long as his body would allow and while he stepped away from the international stage, he continued at club level, joining Old Georgians.
“I was humming and hawing after Paris if I wanted to keep playing fully or did I want to continue to play some club hockey and I felt that I wanted to play as long as I can while I’m still enjoying it,” he explained.
“Obviously it’s not as high pressure and it doesn’t require a huge amount of training each week, so I thought ‘I might as well continue and keep playing’.
“We’re very fortunate that we have a very, very good team, which is strong with a lot of ex internationals and a couple of guys who are still in the GB squad. It’s nice and it keeps me involved, keeps me playing and I’m glad that I haven’t completely packed it all in.”
An added bonus to joining Old Georgians, where Ames is development lead of the boys section, is that he has been reunited once more with his former Cookstown, Ireland, England and GB team-mate, Ian Sloan, another former Cookstown High School alumnus.
”It’s nice [to be playing with Ian once again],” he beamed. “Obviously, we’ve been playing with each other since we were about 14 and that’s nice that there’s still a connection from the Cookstown point of view and that we’re still playing at the same club.
“And I spend most of my time with him because he does a lot of work at the club from a junior perspective as well and we’re in the car talking nearly every night.
“It’s nice to have someone around who I can talk to and reminisce with at times.”
And the pair have enjoyed a very successful two seasons so far with the Surrey-based club, finishing second in the Men’s England Hockey League last term, while so far this year, they have progressed to the last eight of the Euro Hockey League – hockey’s equivalent of the Champions League.
To reach that stage of the competition, which will take place over Easter weekend in Holland where the quarter’s, semi’s and final will all be played to a finish, Ames and Sloan defeated Dutch giants, Bloemendaal in a dramatic shoot-out last weekend when Ames held his nerve to score the winning penalty run-in, while Sloan put in a brilliant shift at the back.
“It was a nice weekend,” Ames beamed. “I’ve played n the EHL a number of times and it’s a prestigious event, pretty much the Champions League for hockey, and to beat a Dutch side, probably the most famous in our sport is a massive scalp.
“It’s not often that a Dutch team gets beaten by a British, English or Irish team and I think that’s the first time they’ve ever been beaten by someone from England or Ireland, so it was nice to be on the other end because I’ve had a number of hidings from those lot in the past!
“It was nice to put one over them.”
With the EHL finale still a number of months away, Ames will continue to enjoy the extra time his international retirement now affords him.
“It’s nice on the body and it gives me time to do my own thing,” he explained.
“It means I have a bit more of a social life and it’s been a bit of a culture shock because I’ve been so fixed on being on certain timings throughout pretty much my whole life – knowing where to be and when to be but now it’s a little bit different, you get to pick and choose and not have to get out of bed as early, so I can’t complain!”
