Two of Pembrokeshire’s most promising sporting stars will head to Switzerland this week to represent their country at the Under-21 European Hockey Championships, writes Fraser Watson.
 
Alastair and Euan Dyer, who came through the ranks with Haverfordwest and then Pembroke County Hockey Club, will travel to Lausanne this weekend as Wales bid to win promotion from their tier two group and rejoin the elite.
 
The two brothers are no strangers to international hockey, having already played for Wales at a variety of age-grade levels. And in what promises to be an intense week, they’ll face the hosts as well as Finland, Scotland, and Czech Republic.
 
Euan, 21, has also been named vice-captain, and underlined the team targets for the tournament. “No game will be easy but we see ourselves as joint favourites with Scotland,” said he said. “We’ve been playing Scotland since under-16 level and often they have beaten us but it’s always a competitive game. They’ll be the main challengers to us in the tournament and they’ll be looking to win it. We’ll obviously be looking to win it as well.
 
“But we’ll take nothing for granted. Two years ago, I was out in the Czech Republic in another under-21 tournament and we took things for granted and we lost ranking spots, which meant we missed out on promotion. So, we can’t let that happen again this year. We have to focus on every single game.”
 
As well as promotion, the team finishing top of the group will also be awarded World Cup qualification, with Euan adding: “If we can do that it will be perfect but there’s a long way to go to get there.”
 
Euan, who added being co-captain for the tournament was a “great honour”, currently plays his hockey at Oxford University. Alastair, 18, is based at Nottingham University, and explained the benefits of being able to play at a high level while studying away. 
 
“It’s probably the biggest sport in University,” he said. “A lot of time and funding goes into it which really helps.”
 
And despite admitting he’d like to see a bigger hockey scene back in Pembrokeshire, he credited the work of local coaches for giving himself and Euan the platform to push for international honours.
 
“Playing at Haverfordwest definitely put us on the right path to getting into the Welsh squad,” he said. “The hockey around here isn’t as strong as it could be because we are quite far out - so it’s hard to get a lot of people in the clubs. But when we started here the local clubs and coaching definitely helped.”
 
The squad will leave from Heathrow on Saturday, July 13, and anyone wanting to follow their progress can do via the Hockey Wales website where games will be streamed live.