Ben Taylor (born 22 March 1976) is a former

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

player from Australia, who played as a midfielder.

Personal life

Ben Taylor was born and raised in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. Taylor's sister, Sarah, also played representative hockey for Australia, as a member of the

Hockeyroos The Australia women's national field hockey team (nicknamed the Hockeyroos) are, as of January 2019, ranked third in the world. Having played their first game in 1914, and their first Olympic game in 1984, they are one of Australia's most succes ...

Career

AHL

Ben Taylor was a member of the

Canberra Lakers The Canberra Lakers (for sponsorship reasons referred to as Canberra Labor Club Lakers) are an Australian hockey team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known a ...

team for fifteen years. He debuted in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

's inaugural season in 1993, where the team finished in sixth place. Taylor's best performance with the Lakers was in 1998, where the team finished second.

National teams

Under–21

Ben Taylor was first named in the Australia U–21 team in 1996. In 1997, he was a member of the gold winning team at the

FIH Junior World Cup The Men's FIH Hockey Junior World Cup, formerly known as the Hockey Junior World Cup, is an international field hockey competition organized by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). The tournament was started in 1979. Since 1985 it has been ...

in Milton Keynes.

Kookaburras

Following a string of solid performances at National Australian Championships and in the NHL, Taylor was named in the

Kookaburras Kookaburras are terrestrial tree kingfishers of the genus ''Dacelo'' native to Australia and New Guinea, which grow to between in length and weigh around . The name is a loanword from Wiradjuri ''guuguubarra'', onomatopoeic of its call. The ...

team in 1998. Throughout his career, Taylor recorded 83 caps with the senior national team, and scoring on 15 occasions. In 2002, he won his first gold medal for Australia at the

2002 Commonwealth Games The 2002 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XVII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Manchester 2002 were held in Manchester, England, from 25 July to 4 August, 2002. The 2002 Games were to be hosted in the United Kingdom to coin ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. This came after winning both silver and bronze at the 2001 and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

FIH Champions Trophies, respectively.

References

External links

* 1976 births Living people Australian male field hockey players Male field hockey midfielders Sportsmen from the Australian Capital Territory Commonwealth Games medallists in field hockey Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Field hockey players at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2002 Commonwealth Games {{Australia-fieldhockey-bio-stub