South Central Men`s O55 Divisional Tournament Result- May 2024

After tons of emailing, organising practice matches and collecting in match fees during the winter months and then arranging balls and kit the O55 South Central team arrived in Southgate for the National Divisional Tournament.

The team was stacked full of talent, hand- picked, the best Masters of the South Central showed their commitment to hockey. See the team sheet for more details

It was great pleasure as Manager to see a team gel so quickly, make new friends or re-connect again, lock down had created a pip that still needed to be filled.

A big thank you to Marc Zander who worn the Captains arm band so well, he had also arranged the hotel and the evening meal, which is always an opportunity to bond more with a few evening beers.

The plan on the Saturday was to enjoy and play well, draws against the Midlands 2-2, the South East 1-1, West 1 -1 and a narrow defeat against London 0-1 placed us nicely in mid table.

The defence was solid, the midfield developing well and the forwards moving together nicely, rolling subs keeping the legs fresh.

As we started to play better hockey it allowed us to push more, on the Sunday we did, three wins against North East 1-0, North West 3-1 and East 1-0 allowed us to creep to the top of the table, joint with the South East. Not bad.   

The whole weekend was played in the correct spirit of Masters hockey, thank you to all the teams, officials and club staff.

Jeremy Clarke

Over 55's Men's Manager 2024