English hockey player with Tipperary background will bring hurling skills to Paris Olympics

An unorthodox style that was honed while playing hurling on holidays as a child with his relations in Tipperary and Limerick will be displayed by a hockey player from Great Britain at the Paris Olympics.

24-year-old Zach Wallace, who plays with the Dutch club Bloemendaal and the England and Great Britain national teams, is vice captain of the Great Britain Olympics squad and is also on the squad leadership team.

Regarded as one of the top five players in the world, he will be a double Olympian by the time this year’s Games finish in August.

He grew up in Caterham in Surrey and is son of Mark Wallace, originally from Drumbo in Co Down, and Cathriona Wallace (née O’Sullivan), who was born and raised in Tipperary Town.

Cathriona’s late father Peter O’Sullivan had a butcher’s shop in Clonmel before he and his late wife Nora and family moved to Tipperary Town, where they ran a butcher’s shop in St Michael’s Street and later at Bank Place.

Cathriona left Tipperary Town when she was 19 and has several relations in Kilmallock in Co Limerick, her father’s home town.

“Zach grew up knocking around with hurleys while on family holidays in Tipperary and Limerick,” says Cathriona.

“At home in England he played around in the garden with the hurley that had been given to him by his relations. That helped him to develop his unorthodox, unusual style as a hockey player,” says Cathriona.

Some of the spectacular goals that he has scored, which can be viewed on YouTube, would do any top class hurler proud.

Described on the England hockey website as “a supremely talented player,” Zach has won 35 caps for the English senior team, scoring nine goals.

He made his international debut in October 2018, appearing at a World Cup and two EuroHockey Championships with England before starring as Great Britain finished fifth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The midfielder/forward was nominated for the FIH (Fédération Internationale de Hockey, or International Hockey Federation) World Young Player of the Year award in 2019.

Zach was captain of the England men’s team that won bronze in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022, despite the stomach bug that swept through the squad during the tournament.

The then 22-year-old is believed to have been the youngest-ever player in any sport to have captained an English team that won a medal.

Last year he represented England at the World Cup and EuroHockey Championships, when they won the silver medals at the European event. He also represented Great Britain in the FIH Pro League, during which they played matches in South America, New Zealand and South Africa.

Having previously played in the Men’s England Hockey League Premier Division for Surbiton, he joined the Dutch professional Hoofdklasse club HGC for the 2021–22 season. After two seasons he moved to Bloemendaal, winning the league this season with the club based near Amsterdam.

He is the first English player to have been signed by Bloemendaal.

A typical week sees him training with the Great Britain squad at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre from Monday-Wednesday, before returning to Bloemendaal to prepare for their matches on Sundays.

“Zach had intended to study economics at university but decided to take the chance to play in the Tokyo Olympics,” says Cathriona.

“He started studying for his Open University degree on planes and in hotel rooms and sat his exams during the Commonwealth Games, and has now completed his degree”.

Hockey talent runs in the family as his younger brother, 14-year-old Rory, is a member of England’s Under 16 squad.

Having missed out on a trip to Tokyo for the last Olympics because of Covid, with the event largely held behind closed doors, Zach’s family are looking forward to making the relatively short journey to Paris to cheer him on at the Olympic Games, which get underway on July 26.