Celebration of Fifty Years of the LMHA 1948 - 1998 :

There were still 4 clubs in the Mixed Section of the LRHA in 1998 which were here 50 years before:

Coalville Rangers (see their club page to see what they did for their 50th),
Market Harborough - formally Symingtons,
SouthWigston and
Nomads (I believe).

While each had their own celebrations, the 50th Anniversary of the Leicestershire Mixed Hockey Association was celebrated with a ‘Festival of Hockey’ at Loughborough University on 5th and 6th September 1998. The Festival had representation from 18 of the 29 clubs, covering 31 of the Association’s teams. This meant there were 20 teams in the Festival. The event had three elements: Ladies 7-a-side, Men’s 7-a-side and Mixed 11-a-side.

Teams played a mixture of all the other teams in the Festival, with the idea that teams rarely get the chance to compete against some of the other clubs, especially the ones at the other end of the spectrum, so why not, for a change?

Teams were allowed to field players from other teams as necessary, to keep the numbers up. This seemed to work well, with everyone joining in the spirit & fitting in as many games as possible. There was the added interest of the Global Hockey Travellers, a team built from Dutch & German hockey playing friends of some of the Bedouins teams.

The first day was spoilt a little by the poor weather conditions. This set a damp atmosphere for the first hour or so. A couple of early injuries also hindered the enjoyment for some (especially those injured). As the weather became brighter and the organisers got into the swing, things progressed quite nicely.

The Umpires did an excellent job throughout, especially on that first day. There were five pitches in action and only ten Umpires. It was certainly a decent workout for players & Umpires alike.

The weather was far brighter the second day. The fixtures were re-jiggled as a couple of teams had problems for the Sunday. The new itinerary was designed to be kinder to the players and Umpires. It seemed to work, as there was more chance to spectate, helped by bigger breaks and better weather.

The ‘Competition’ part of the Festival was never meant to be purely mathematical. Consideration was given to the results, but as great was the attitude of teams & their organisation over the two days. The teams were split into two sections based around the Senior & Junior sections in the season ahead. For the record, the teams were,

Senior: Bedouins, Global Hockey Travellers (guests), Leicester Goans, Kibworth, Loughborough Carillon A, Leicester Mixed, Leicester Hospitals, Market Harborough, Syson & Westpark.

Junior: Aardvarks, Baggies, Charles Keene, Druck, Hermitage, Loughborough Carillon B, Nomads/South Wigston, Rangers, Stoke Golding & Wigston Crusaders.

The teams awarded trophies were Seniors Kibworth and Market Harborough and Juniors Stoke Golding, Aardvarks and Rangers.


Mark Jones