England Hockey player, Margaret Bottomley, Chair and Lead Coach at Park Tennis Club, helps bring back Gold for England in the 2024 World Cup Auckland Women's O65s.  The England team scored 33 goals in the competition from 5 match wins and 1 draw. You can view the results here: Masters: Altiusrt.

Margaret told us:

November saw me have an amazing time representing England in the hockey Master's World Cup. Across all the age groups there were 129 teams representing 23 countries at the fantastic North Harbour Hockey Centre in Auckland.... by far the biggest event I've played in and the best hockey facilities I've ever seen.

I was lucky enough to be selected to be part of a  fantastic 16 player squad to represent England Womens 65s.

We had comprehensive wins in the group stages including an 11-0 victory over Canada, a 3-1 win over the hosts, New Zealand, and a 1-1 draw with Australia. This saw us face Argentina in the semi finals  where we had a comfortable 3-0 win. Wales had an exceptional performance to beat Australia in the other semi final, so the home nations faced each other in the final.

After 3 World Cup finals it's still an emotional experience walking out to line up for the national anthem but a good first half performance by all the team settled any nerves and we ran out 7-0 winners.

The celebrations were fairly short lived as members of the team went their different ways, some returning home and most, like me, starting their travels round New Zealand.  It's been a truly great experience so far and I'm now looking forward to seeing more of New Zealand.

Well done, Margaret, from all at Park Tennis Club!

You can view the team photo below: