African Masters’ Invitational towards Hockey World Cup
Masters’ hockey was the theme of the weekend at the Morningside Country Club.
The Morningside Country Club (MCC) in Sandton became a hub of masters’ hockey activity from November 23 – 26.
Hockey players from across the continent took part in the African Masters’ Invitational (AMI), and the MCC’s turf was one of the venues in northern Joburg used for the series of hockey games played over the weekend.
“The intention is to have teams from Africa come and against us, to give us suitable opposition, and give us a bit of an international flavour to prepare us for the World Cup,” said SA Masters’ Hockey representative Mark Halgryn. “We get the players together, put them through a trial process, and the culmination of the trial process is the AMI.”
Halgryn indicated that the trial series between teams of masters’ hockey players from 35-75 years old was made up of lifelong hockey players.
“The AMI is a platform to allow our players to garner international experience, playing against teams [from] Namibia, Zimbabwe,” Halgryn said. “Following on from these series, the actual teams get selected for the world cup, which is going to be in Cape Town and New Zealand next year.”
The mens’ 45 (M45) team squared up against the mens’ 50 (M50) team on November 26 in a match which resulted in a final score of 1 – 1.
“It was a great game between the two sides,” said M45 coach Natalie Bleckert. “The 50s scored first, and then the 45s’ Craig Oellermann scored our goal. The 45s dominated the game – we had all the circle entries; we couldn’t finish our attack in short corners.”
The M50 captain Craig Carolan also praised the series for allowing hockey players to play professionally. He labelled the series as ‘a brilliant few days all round’.
“The AMI tournament has been a brilliant opportunity for all the teams to test themselves against the other national teams and for the players to once again enjoy the camaraderie of our wonderful sport,” Carolan said. “As the SA Over 50s team, we were pleased, in the main, with our progress and are looking forward to continuing to build on the foundations we have laid over the past month or so.”
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