A master with bronze

HISTORY MAKER: Veteran Whanganui hockey player Mark Wilson and his bronze - the first medal a New Zealand team has ever won at Grand Masters World Cup level.

VETERAN Whanganui hockey player Mark Wilson has returned home from the eighth Grand Masters Hockey World Cup in Newcastle, Australia, a history maker.

Wilson joined a team in the 65-plus age group ending the nine-day tournament last week with bronze and bragging rights as the first New Zealand men's masters team to have ever beaten the strong hockey nation of the Netherlands. In fact, Wilson's side beat the defending World Cup champions in their age group twice.

Wilson's team is also the first Kiwi men's masters side to win a medal at a World Cup. "The 65-plus team I was part of came top of our pool with no losses," Wilson said yesterday.

"We played Netherlands first up and they were the current World Cup champs and we won 3-2. In the next games we played Belgium and won 7-1, drew 1-1 with South Africa and beat Wales 2-1. This placed us in the semi-final with the 2015 European champions England who had four players with over 100 caps and another eight with over 40.

"Considering that our team had never played together in a tournament till this World Cup we were pleased with our effort of being down four goals in the second quarter to come back and be beaten 4-2. We were still in with a medal chance but had to play the Netherlands again on the final day. We won 3-1 to claim the bronze," Wilson said.

The Masters World Cup is a grand affair with 42 teams competing with 840 participants playing a total of 137 games.

The Grand Masters section included men over 60, 65 and 70 and one team of men over 75 from Australia. Three other age groups - 60s, 65s and 70s - competed for the Tournament Trophy, which is part of the Masters World Cup. These are made up those players not selected for the Grand Masters teams, but they attended and played in a separate competition. New Zealand sent two teams to this event, 60-plus and 65-plus and this was only the second time New Zealand had entered a 65+ team. "Other countries in our grade were eventual winners Australia, Scotland and Japan," Wilson said. "Word has it that the Japan 70s team had a goalkeeper who was 90. We saw him play and he was an inspiration for anyone to continue playing hockey."

This was Wilson's third outing for New Zealand bringing the striker's tally to 16 caps.

New Zealand team manager Bronwyn Ellison said this tournament was not a run-of-the-mill golden oldies gathering, it was Federation of International Hockey-sanctioned. It also marked New Zealand's highest ranking at this level. The Kiwis are now ranked third behind Australia and England. "The pace at this level is surprisingly strong. Bronwyn was right; it's not golden oldies. There's some fit old buggers out there - I'm still recovering," Wilson said.