MWC26 T1 & T2 Round Up

Across the last 12 months nearly a thousand people have come together across the 8 A-team age groups and genders and the three IMC Spirit of Masters teams to trial, compete, and then be selected to represent England in the T1 and T2 competitions in Rotterdam and Schiedam.

 The two host clubs of Rotterdam and Schiedam, with the satellite club of Hockey Club Victoria, put on a fantastic show. The hockey was the primary focus but side events, food stalls, and bars made for a fantastic hospitable event in the Netherlands.

 But despite the party atmosphere and both small and large glasses of Dutch beer, the focus was primarily on the hockey itself, with the eleven England representative teams all vying for gold and the title of ‘World Champions’

 With Masters in England getting stronger and stronger and stronger, simply competing was never going to be enough. The desire to be world champions and lift the trophy and wear the gold medals became the essence of the sides that were selected. The training that came into play after Christmas was hard. Cold and rainy training days were necessary to prepare the sides for what could be hot and sunny conditions with heated hockey.

 With success being dictated by perfection in both circles it comes down to goals scored and clean sheets kept. Across the eight A-Teams the best clean sheet record went to both the women's over-50s - Five clean sheets between the goalkeepers Amanda Billington and Mandy Ferebee. Five clean sheets was also the successful record of the women's 35s, with goalkeepers Becca Smith and Beth Burke proving to be almost unbeatable.

 At the other end of the pitch goals scored were going to be vital for all the sides there and across the A teams the top goal scorers were:

 For the Women's 35s Sarah Kerly with 8

For the Women's 40s Nicky Kellett and Sacha Hateley-Lowe with 6 apiece

In the Women's 45s Vicky Woolford with 4

In the Women's 50s Jennie Hoyte with 5

In the Men's 35s it was Charlie Ellison with 6

In the Men's forties Jags Gill with 7

In the Men's 45s Ali Ghazanfar with 7

In the Men's 50s Chris Graham also with 7

 The summary of the results for the 11 teams that competed was five golds, four silvers, and two bronzes across both the A and the B teams that were competing in the Spirit of Masters IMC competitions. The individual results were as follows:

 Women's over 35s: Gold

Women's 40s: Silver

Women's 45s: Bronze

Women's 50s: Silver

The IMC women's 50s: Gold

The Men's 35s: Gold

The Men's 40s: Silver

The Men's 45s: bronze, with the IMC Spirit of Masters teams taking Silver

The Men's 50s: gold and the men's IMC 50s also Gold

So incredible results from T1 and T2 World Cup competitions. If England had to pick a single team as overall victors, that would have to go to the women's 35s. Gold in their competition, the joint most clean sheets, and the highest number of goals scored.

 A fantastic record for T1 and T2 for the England sides. Let's see what T3 and T4 in Antwerp at KHC Dragons & HC Olympia and Breda at Push Hockey Club can bring us.