Last year this tournament celebrated its 10Th Anniversary milestone, and this year proved to be just as remarkable as the founder, Bill Greenwood (member of KHC for many years before moving away), who is celebrating his 90Th birthday this year was playing in every game, proving that age is no barrier to participating in sport.

A huge thank you goes to those members of KHC who stepped up and supported the event throughout the whole weekend. Our president Jean Smith worked tirelessly serving food in the kitchen, selling raffle tickets or simply meeting and greeting the players and she gave a fabulous speech at the evening meal held at KHC.
Thanks also to Mary Schwier who booked the pitches at Wrenn School as well as organising the evening meal, no easy task, and to Sue and Ian Russell who spent many hours setting up the clubhouse and then worked tirelessly behind the bar all evening. They were even persuaded to mark the quiz sheets yet again. It is all the “behind the scenes” work that often goes unnoticed that ensures such successful events.
At the last minute, Carla Bennett got together a ladies team and Chris Randle an U12 squad and both teams played exceptionally well over the two days and I believe everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience - so many, many thanks go to Carla and Chris and all their team members.
Richard Carter and Matt Bennett were in charge of keeping everything running smoothly in the clubhouse, keeping paper & electronic copies of the results. Excellent work and all the players really appreciated being kept up to date with the results and details of the up-coming matches which were easily read on the big screen.
Finally matches would not go ahead without umpires so a huge thank you goes to Lee Paris who recruited and allocated umpires to cover all 40 games. Our amazing umpires from KHC were Lee, Nick, Dan, Dom, Richard, Del (from Northampton Saints) and Mark. And yet again some of the umpires switched umpires shirts for playing shirts to help out various teams if and when needed
Thanks to family Brading who returned from holiday to help out on Sunday, Cheryl taking over kitchen duties, Paul photographer and Millie and Holly playing whenever and where ever needed.
Finally, many thanks to “Musical Instruments and Repairs” who kindly sponsored the match fees for the Kettering teams as well as the “volunteers” meals at the evening buffet.
Throughout the whole weekend all the games were played with great determination while demonstrating total respect and consideration for each other.
Bill Greenwood playing for LX is currently the oldest hockey player in the UK playing on a regular basis, and alongside him on the LX O70’s Men’s team were Brian Walcott (79) and Brian Merrill (86). One of the best games of the weekend was the one between this LX men’s team and KHC U12’s. (The oldest player 89 years old and the youngest 8 years old) The atmosphere was electric when this team of experience and skill played the U12 team who used their speed and agility to great advantage and eventually managed to beat the LX Men 1 – 0. Praise for the youngsters was universal.

In fact the junior U12 team won all 4 games on the Sunday winning the final game of the tournament against LX Ladies White team 4 – 0. This demonstrated how a mix of ages can create a tournament of fun, skill and most importantly allow the youngsters to see and replicate the skills of International Grandmasters with great determination.
The quote one former England International player and ex KHC Player “Today I have been nutmegged by a 10 year old and couldn’t catch him, and then in the following match an 80 year old stopped the ball dead and had passed it by the time I arrived”
This is what makes the tournament so unique and we hope shows other sports what can be achieved.
Finally, once again, many thanks to all members of KHC who supported this unique event and worked so hard throughout the whole weekend.
One very interesting game on day 2 was the fixture between Kettering Ladies and the U12’s. The result was unimportant but the atmosphere was electric with spectators getting as involved as the players if not more so !

Although this tournament is not about raising money, for the third year running, over £1000.00 has been raised and this year £1223.58 was donated to “The British Heart Foundation” in memory of Jacky Murray founder of LX Ladies and our friend and playing colleague.