Earlier in the year the 2024 World Masters Hockey World club kicked off in South Africa and four Salisbury Hockey players competed with Bede Grossmith winning a silver.

For some age categories the world cup had yet to start so New Zealand completed all age groups for this World Cup cycle. 2,700+ hockey players 129 teams representing 23 countries plus officials from all over the world descended on Auckland to compete for World Cup Medals in 10 Age group categories.

Salisbury was represented by Miranda MacTaggart and Rebekah Ball.

Miranda played for the England 0ver 65’s, and Rebekah is the assistant coach for the England Women’s Over 70’s.

Miranda was called up with four days’ notice due to illness in the squad, so she packed her bags and found a flight to Auckland and joined the squad.

England started with an 11-0 win against Canada and went on to win their next two games, 8-0 against England LX and 3-1 against hosts New Zealand.

The other standout team in the pool was Australia and they met in their final pool game. Australia took the lead within three minutes, but England quickly hit back, and it was 1-1 after the first quarter and that’s how it stayed. England winning the pool on goal difference and moving on to the semi-final to play Argentina. The Argentinians were defeated 3-0 setting up a final with Wales.

Wales had fought out a nail-biting shootout where they eventually edged out Australia on sudden death to make their first major tournament final. However, they weren’t able to defeat England who won 7-0 to take gold. Miranda said “The win was fully deserved and a very proud moment for all. Now the team have dispersed across New Zealand for down time and R&R.”

It is Rebekah’s first season working with the England Women’s over 70’s and it’s been quite a year, The over 70’s kicked of the tournament with a 7-0 win to an Alliance team and followed this up with a 6-0 win against England LX. As with the over 65s the key pool game was against Australia and similarly, they drew this time 2-2. The final game in the pool was against hosts New Zealand who they beat 3-1, setting up a final for England against Australia.

The final was a close affair ending 0-0 in regulation time and taking seven rounds of shootouts for Australia to eventually take the gold medal.

After the final Rebekah commented “The World Cup has been an intense but absolutely incredible experience for me, and I am so proud of what our team has been able to achieve! It's been inspirational to watch so many masters players playing such high-level hockey and has given me some extra motivation for my own game.”

Well done to our Salisbury Hockey players and we look forward to welcoming them back.