The Hawke's Bay Men's masters hockey team capped off a fine week on Saturday to win the men's 50-plus grade at the National Masters Tournament in Palmerston North.
The only other win by a Hawke's Bay team at the National Masters Tournament came 10 years ago when the men's 45 team were victors. Interestingly, there were six players involved in the win on Saturday who were part of that team 10 years ago including player/coach Neil Edmundson who said the players were absolutely delighted to beat Auckland in the final 3-0.
In pool play, the Bay had easy wins over Tauranga (6-0) and Wellington (5-0) and a penalty shootout win over Auckland after drawing 1-1 at the end of ordinary time, the team topped its pool and played North Harbour in the semi-finals. A rather lacklustre display with some poor finishing meant that what should have been an easy win ended in a close 2-1 victory to Hawke's Bay. In the final, Auckland matched Hawke's Bay for the first half, however, the superior speed and skill of the Hawke's Bay team came through in the final with goals to Dennis Drake, Phil Teague and Andy Waretini producing a convincing result.
Player/manager Dave Smale, who was attending his 16th national masters, was disappointed to miss the final, as he had to return early for his daughter's wedding. .
But he kept in contact with the team and had his gold medal presented to him as part of the wedding speeches.
Neil Edmundson said the secret to success was keeping a core group of players together for many years and most importantly having fun.
The week culminated in the selection of New Zealand masters teams to attend an international masters tournament in London later in the year. Edmundson and Teague were selected.