Hockey: Mark is at the top of his game in Olympic year (From Gazette Series)

Mark Pearn honoured to be UK Player of the Year for 2011

9:00am Friday 3rd February 2012 in Sport By Rob Iles

MARK PEARN believes he is playing the best hockey of his career.

Last month the former Katharine Lady Berkeley’s School pupil received the Rose Bowl for the UK Player of the Year Award for 2011, which he had previously won in 2000.

“It was a bit of a surprise when I got the letter over Christmas,” said Pearn.

“I won it when I was younger 11 years ago, and then you think you’re going to win it all the time and you don’t realise how great it is.

“It is a real honour and only a couple of people have won it twice, so it shows I’m on the right path.”

Pearn has been player-coach of East Grinstead for the last seven seasons, and helped them win the English Hockey League, the European Indoor Trophy and they became National Indoor League champions for the first time ever in 2007.

He previously won the award while playing for Reading, where he won several titles including the European Cup, before spending one season in Barcelona playing for the Polo Club.

Pearn’s hockey career began at Gloucester from the age of nine and he joined Reading when he went to the University of West London at 18.

He now lives in Sandhurst and combines his playing commitments with teaching hockey at Wellington College and Eagle House Prep School in Berkshire and family life with wife Holly and young daughters Isabella, 4, and Ruby, 2.

And Pearn believes his happy lifestyle has helped get the best out of him on the hockey field.

He said: “I’m a bit more experienced, I’m a more rounded person with stuff going on with my family and school, I’m seeing the bigger picture and I’m a bit more relaxed.

“The responsibility at my club has given me an incentive to do well and the award is also a reflection of what the club has done.”