THE OLD saying goes that familiarity breeds contempt but Alex Danson insists that couldn’t be further from the truth, admitting she’s still sweating on her London 2012 dream.

Danson, 26, who lives in Wycombe with fellow hockey hopefuls Kerry Williams and Gemma Darrington, has been a mainstay for England and Great Britain since making her debut as a fresh-faced 16-year-old.

She has amassed 148 caps and seven major international bronze medals including three last year at the Commonwealth Games, World Cup and Champions Trophy.

The Commonwealth Games aside, those medals represented a watershed moment for Danson and co – it was the first time England had reached the podium at both the other events, and she is in no doubt as the reasons behind recent improvements.

For the last three years, a 30-strong Great Britain squad have based themselves at Bisham Abbey where full-time centralised training camps have been introduced.

She said: “For the last three years we’ve been centralised and the strides we’ve made have been amazing – it was absolutely key to last year’s success.

“You come together as 30 individuals and while you play the same sport you don’t really know one another that well.

“But we have got to know each other so well and we know how to treat each other during the games, how each other play and how to get the best out of one another.

“In terms of competition for places in the GB squad at the moment, healthy is an understatement. I would never be able to pick our side but it’s fantastic for us.

“We never know who is going to play or who is going to be picked but that’s actually a bit of a dream scenario because everyone wants to play and everyone wants the team to do well in London and the harder the competition is the better the team is going to be.”

GB are going to the EuroHockey Nations Championships in Germany next week . l Investec will be the principle partner of the England and Great Britain women’s hockey teams. The Specialist Bank and Asset Manager have signed a five year agreement beginning with England’s participation in the EuroHockey Nations Championships.