On the weekend of the 21-22^nd June 2010, the Ireland Masters (over 45’s) played their first ever tournament in the Home Nations International Hockey championships.

First up were the Welsh hosts. In a fast and open game with plenty of scoring opportunities it looked as though it was going to be a high scoring thriller. A short corner variation by Peter Conway to Mark Murray led to a Welsh arm preventing a goal bound shot from crossing the line and Ali Reilly duly converted the resultant penalty stroke with a rocket that gave the goalkeeper no chance. Ireland conceded quite a lot of penalty corners during the course of the game but although the Welsh had plenty of possession they were unable to convert this into high quality chances within the circle. It was inevitable that they would get some luck from one of their corners and after the initial stop broke down, a well struck straight drive from the top of the circle levelled the scores. The match itself ended in a 1-1 draw which was probably a fair result.

The second match was against the red hot favourites England but Ireland got off to a flying start after some great work by Ali Reilly and Gerry Hamill. Neil Murray picked up a square pass just outside the penalty spot and crashed a shot past the English goalkeeper into the top of the net. Ireland then had to withstand sustained English pressure searching for the equaliser. Goalkeeper Martin White distinguished himself during this period with some excellent reflex saves. In the end, a very controversially awarded penalty stroke allowed England to level the scores and Ireland’s frustrations were compounded minutes later when another poor short corner decision gave England the lead. In the second half Ireland battled gamely but couldn’t contain the English forwards and in the end England ran out comfortable victors at 7-2. Mark Murray scored a consolation near the end from a direct short corner strike.

An excellent championship dinner held on the Saturday night coupled with an early match meant Ireland were quite defensive in the early phases of the match against Scotland. A penalty stroke was awarded after a short corner breakdown and Ireland found themselves 1-0 down despite having played most of the hockey.  Minutes later a penalty corner of their own was hammered home by Peter Conway after the rebound from his initial shot fell kindly. Ireland continued to expose the Scottish defence and it was no surprise when Neil Murray picked up a fine pass from Ali Reilly just outside the circle, stepped in and lashed the ball high into the corner to give Ireland a 2-1 lead. Things got better moments later when Nick Pfeiffer was picked out by Conway with a 40-yard pass just outside the Scottish 25. Pfeiffer skipped past his defender and then comfortably beat the goalkeeper to give himself the simplest of tap-ins from a yard out. Ireland were looking very comfortable and well worth their 3-1 lead. Ireland did begin to play more defensively as Scotland threw everything at them which led to another Scottish penalty stroke with 10 minutes to go. This was duly converted and it was “game on”. Ireland missed a few chances of their own as the Scottish pressed forward and were left to rue the misses when with less than a minute to go, Scotland won yet another penalty stroke to level the match at 3-3.

In the end, Ireland came 2^nd in their first ever appearance at the over 45’s level and were very pleased with the weekends efforts. Masters co-ordinator Andy Nye ran the bench superbly well throughout all three matches to keep the tempo of the matches as high as possible. Everyone in the squad is already looking forward to next year and hopefully our success of this season will encourage others to sign up.  If you are over 40 and still playing hockey, you should get along to a session. Next year you could be helping Ireland win.

Ireland Men Masters (Over 45’s): Graeme Shaw (GK, Ballymena), Martin White (GK, Galway), Mark Surgeon (Lisnagarvey), Kieran McColdrick (Larne), Peter Conway (Portrane), Herbie Todd (Mossley), Tom Darkoh (Wolfhounds), Phil Thomas (Bangor), Mark Murray (Captain, Lisnagarvey), Neil Murray (Leicester), Colm O’Hare (Suttonians), Gerry Hamill (Mossley), Ali Reilly (Antrim), Nick Pfieffer (Suttonians), Paul Whiteside (Antrim), Malcom McWhirter (Cookstown), Mervyn McCaigue (Newry)