The inaugural men’s over 55 Area tournament took place on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd May 2022 hosted by Old Loughtonians Hockey Club at Luxborough Lane in Chigwell.

All 8 new Areas were represented although South Central and South East fielded two combined squads (Oranges and Pinks) having struggled to find sufficient numbers for separate full squads from the individual Areas.

Pool 1 matches started at 11.00 on Saturday with Midlands winning 1-0 against London with the first goal of the tournament from Kevin Stanyon on pitch 2. In the match on pitch 1 Stuart Aldrich scored with the last touch of the game to give Oranges a 1-0 win over North West.

Pool 2 followed at 12.00 with a 2-0 win for East against Pinks with goals from Tony Cashman and Paul Whitney and a 0-0 draw between West and Yorkshire & North East. East’s good form continued with a 3-2 win against Yorkshire & North East with a hatTrick from Shayne Andrews followed by a 2-1 win against West (goals from Ian Konrath and Paul Carver). At close of play on Saturday East were top of Pool 2 with 9 points and West were second with 4 points having won 3-1 against Pinks. Pinks were third having won 3-2 against Yorkshire & North East who were placed fourth.

In Pool 1 Oranges had 9 points having won 3 -0 against Midlands and 3-0 against London, North West were 2nd on 3 points (on goal difference) having lost 2-1 to London but beaten Midlands 1-0, London were 3rd also on 3 points (on goals scored) and Midlands 4th also on 3 points.

After a tournament meal in Chingford on Saturday night, and with the sun shining brightly, the teams reassembled on Sunday morning for the classification games.

In the 10.00 matches Pinks won 2-1 against Midlands and London won 4-1 against Yorkshire & North West including a hattrick from former Old Lought Phill Montgomery back on home turf.

In the subsequent matches Midlands finished 7th overall after winning 4-1 against Yorkshire & North East (8th) and Pinks finished 5th after a 2-0 win against London (6th).

In the semifinals Oranges won 2-0 against West on pitch 1. On pitch 2 East had a slow start and fell behind to two early Albert Marcano goals for North West and despite a strong second half and another goal from Shayne Andrews (who finished as joint tournament top goal scorer with Phill Montgomery and Albert Marcano) East could not find the net for an equaliser and North West progressed to the final.

East did however end the weekend with a win. Goals from Howie Wilson and Mike Crowson were enough to win 2-0 against West to secure third place with West fourth.

The final was a hard fought match in the early afternoon heat. In the end penalty corner goals from Mahmoud Bhatti, Richard Barrett and Richard Adam’s and a penalty stroke from captain Paddy Osborn gave the South Central & South East Oranges team a 4-0 win and the tournament victory. Congratulations to them.

The medals were presented by tournament organiser Jane Blake from Old Loughts and East Masters chairman Kim Hansen who thanked the umpires and the match officials and the many other club volunteers who contributed to making the tournament such a success.

Thanks in particular to Jon Kiely who took photographs of the tournament. The photographs are posted in the photo gallery on the Old Loughts website. All the results and short match reports are also available on this East Masters website.

Team and umpire photos by Jon Kiely

Peter Kempe