Congratulations to South East who won the over 50s tournament held at Luxborough Lane on the weekend of 13th and 14th May.

The weather forecasters had promised sunny skies but the skies were grey and the air bracing as the teams gathered from around the country for the 11.00 start. The tournament schedule set by the Area Masters committee was tight with 16 matches to be played on the Saturday and a further 12 on the Sunday in a round robin competition with each team playing each other.

The tournament started with the North and South derbies as North West (“NW”) played Yorkshire & North East (“Y & NE”) and South Central (“SC”) faced South East (“SE”). NW won their match with early goals from Judith Offer, Helen Hough and Julie Walker. The South derby turned out to be between the winners and runners up. SC took the lead through Anna Morgan but two goals from Jennie Hoyte and a third from Angela Farthing put SE in control before Mel Redman added a second for SC. Hoyte and Redman eventually finished the tournament as joint top scorers on 8 goals each.
East prevailed against local rivals London with Sarah Embrey and Zoe Barford scoring in a 2-0 win whilst West and Midlands played out a 0-0 draw.

After a short break East played North West and drew 1-1 with goals from Rebecca McGrellis for East and Julie Walker for NW. On pitch 2 a tight match saw Yorkshire & North East win 2-1 against London. Sophie Robson and Rachel Jones scored for Y & NE and Val Beveridge for London.

In the 13.40 fixtures both South Central and South East scored 4 to keep the match officials busy. Jennie Hoyte, Angela Farthing, Paula Nicholas and Leslie-Anne Tomlinson each scored as SE won 4-0 against Midlands. Su Konganga, Nikki Kuntze, Mel Redman and Tania Bridge scored for SC as they beat West 4-1 for whom Kim Harris scored.

South East scored another 4 shortly afterwards as Farthing, Hoyte, and Tomlinson and Natalie Harvey scored for SE against Yorkshire & North East in a 4-1 win. Rachel Jones scored for Y & NE. South Central were also back in action immediately and with tired legs lost 1-0 to North West for whom Judith Offer scored the winner with a minute to play

West took an early two goal lead against East with goals from Bev Urbans and Kim Harris. Zoe Bailey pulled one back for East but it was not enough as steadily improving West held on to win 2-1. On pitch 2, Vicky Harris scored for London to give them a 1-0 win over Midlands.

North West, through Di Bellin, scored another late goal, this time in the last minute in a tight 1-1 draw with West after Kim Harris opened the scoring for West. South Central (Sherene Butler (2), Anna Morgan and Mel Redman) scored another 4 in a 4-0 win against Yorkshire & North East.
In the final matches of an increasingly cold afternoon South East (Angela Farthing, Paula Nicholas and Kirsty Rostron) beat London 3-0 to end the day on maximum points and East (Emma Ischerwood, Sarah Embrey and Rebecca McGrellis) also scored 3 in a 3-1 win against Midlands with captain Kat Vaughan on the scoresheet for Midlands.

After 4 matches each there were some very weary bodies heading for their evening meal and a well deserved rest. However with matches starting again at 10.00 on Sunday there was no time for a lie in.

In the opening matches, on another cold grey day, South Central played Midlands and London played West. Kim Harris scored again as West beat London 1-0.

On pitch 1, captain Jane Clarke scored two early goals for SC and Mel Redman added a third before an injury to Midlands keeper Emma Olifent just before half time brought the match to a halt. She thankfully was able to return from hospital in time for the presentation and we wish her a speedy recovery.
After checking the tournament regulations the tournament director (“TD”) declared the match complete at the time play was stopped leaving SC as 3-0 winners. With no replacement keeper and with another player driving to the hospital, Midlands, after consulting the TD decided, in the interests of fair play, that they were unable to honour their next two matches in a competitive way and with the agreement of the TD their final two matches were played as friendlies with SC keeper Evelyn Hargreaves and SE keeper Ali Watson valiantly stepping in as guest keepers. Midlands’ opponents, North West and Yorkshire & North East were awarded 3-0 wins.

In the first 11.00 fixture, as the sun finally appeared, East had a comfortable 5-1 win against Y & NE. Old Loughts own Lynn Wright opened the scoring for East after only one minute. Julia Butterworth equalised ten minutes afterwards for Y & NE before Sarah Emburey, Sarah Bamfield, Emma Ischerwood and Tamsin Dye completed the scoring.
In the other fixture Paula Nicholas and Jennie Hoyte scored for South East in a hard fought 2-0 win over North West.

In the 11.50 matches Mel Redman scored 2 as South Central beat London 2-0. It could have been a lot more but Kathrin Jacobsen in the London goal had an exceptional match rescuing her team on repeated occasions. North West beat Midlands 2-0 in their friendly with Sally Hutchinson and Lou Hutchinson scoring for NW.

Kim Harris and Rosemary Logan then scored as West beat Y & NE 2-0. In the other match South East were in clinical form scoring 5 (Claire Hales (2),Jennie Hoyte (2) and Angela Farthing) as they beat East (Zoe Barford scoring) 5-1.

With two rounds to go and now a blazing sun in the sky, North West kept themselves in contention for second place with a 3-0 win against London. Mandy Pickersgill, Cathhy Kilgallon and Judith Offers scored the goals. Yorkshire & North East won 2-0 in their friendly against Midlands. Angela Crane and Rachel Jones scored their goals.

With four of the top five positions still to play for South East took on West and South Central played East. In an incredibly fast match at the end of two long days both West and SE played some of their best hockey. Jenny Francis scored after 3 minutes but it remained 1-0 until 9 minutes from time when Jennie Hoyte doubled the SE lead only for Kim Harris to pull one back for West. West pushed forward trying to find an equaliser but Angela Farthing caught them on the break and the match finished 3-1.

On pitch 2, a very tired East were already 4-0 down at half time after two goals from Mel Redman and one a piece from Anna Morgan and Tania Bridge. Anna Morgan scored again after half time and Su Konganda made it 6-0 as South Central secured the points they needed for second place.

Old Loughtonians chairman Phillip Wheater announced the final standings and congratulated all of the teams and the umpires on an excellent weekend of hockey and commented on the way in which Masters hockey not only keeps more players involved in the game (now even to over 75s) but also brings players together in friendship as well as competition. West were awarded the best dance routine prize for their warm up and warm down performances.

Tournament organiser Jane Blake presented the medals to winners South East and runners up South Central and club photographer Jon Kiely completed his photoshoot.

For full team details please see the attached programme.