2018 World Cup - Great Grand Masters (Over 65)

Barcelona 20-30 June 2018

The 2018 Grand Masters Hockey World Cup took place at Real Club de Polo, Barcelona and Castelldefels from Wednesday 20 to Saturday 30 May.

14 teams took part in the Great Grand Masters (Over 65) World Cup, in two pools of five teams and one pool of four teams. Scotland were in Pool A along with England, Germany, Italy and South Africa. They finished fourth in the pool and qualified for the 9-12 play offs. A win over Ireland took them into the play off for ninth place, though it took a penalty shoot out to decide the match, which finished 1-1, Scotland won the shoot out 2-1. Unfortunately, a number of players had booked early flights home and Scotland were left with only twelve players for their final match, whixh they lost 1-0 to Belgium to finish in tenth place.

65s warm up at Castelldefels

Great Grand Masters try prayer as part of their warm up

Altius RT results, teams, scorers

Pool A Matches

Thursday 21 June

England flag England 0 Scotland 0 Scotland Flag
German Flag Germany 5 Italy 0 Italian Flag

England 0 Scotland 0

Scotland Great Grand Masters faced tough opposition in their first match in the shape of England but showed that Scottish grit and determination, and sticking to their game plan, could frustrate the Auld Enemy. England huffed and puffed, winning a barrowload of penalty corners, but Chris Kalman in the Scottish goal put in a blinder of a performance and none of the English attempts found the net. It was not a completely one sided match, Scotland creating a few chances. The result should give Scotland confidence to go into their next match against South Africa aiming for three points.

Friday 22 June

England flag England 5 Italy 0 Italian Flag
German Flag Germany 2 South Africa 0 South Africa flag

Saturday 23 June

South Africa flag South Africa 3 Scotland 1 Scotland Flag

South Africa 3 (St Dare, Robb, Surtees pen) Scotland 1 (Loudon)

Scotland went into this match with high hopes after holding England in their first match, but the result was disappointing. After a goalless first quarter, field goals from Danny St Dare in 29 minutes and Rodney Rpobb on the stroke of half time made the score 2-0 for South Africa. Eight minutes after the restart, South Africa were awarded a penalty stroke, which Clive Surtees converted. Gordon Loudon pulled one back for the Scots with a field goal in 61 minutes but the match ended 3-1 in favour of the opposition.

Sunday 24 June

South Africa flag South Africa 0 England 5 ENGentina flag
Italian Flag Italy 1 Scotland 3 Scotland Flag

Italy 1 (Fazi) Scotland 3 (Gordon 2, Mitchell)

After a long journey to Castellfedels and in temperatures unsuited to the fair skinned Scots the pre-match tactics were to build up play carefully and not allow he Italians to build up confidence - and in the first quarter this was achieved. However as the half went on the Scots became more of an attacking force and from a short corner Peter Gordon slipped the ball to Les Mitchell who fired in his debut goal for Scotland. Before the half was over the Midlands hockey duo once again were involved when Les Mitchell passed to Peter Gordon for him to slip the ball past the keeper. The second half began nervously for the Scots but hard work by George Finlayson and Jonny Sudale in midfield nullified their opponents' runs. Another goal for Scotland was needed to allay fears of an Italian comeback and this was forthcoming when a superb diagonal ball from Les Mitchell was deflected into the roof of the net from the penalty spot by Peter Gordon. After this the Scots relaxed so much so that with 10 minutes to go the Italians scrambled the ball over the line through Marco Fazi. However Scotland comfortably held out and could have gone further ahead with two shots by Tim Lorimer going close.

The final score of 3-1 was a good result for the Scots. After a day of rest the Germans come next and victory would guarantee Scotland Great Grand Masters a place in the quarter finals. However this will be a huge task against a very strong team.

Monday 25 June

German Flag Germany 1 England 2 England flag

Tuesday 26 June

German Flag Germany 3 Scotland 0 Scotland Flag
South Africa flag South Africa 3 Italy 0 Italian Flag

Scotland 0 Germany 3 (Kliess, Holzer, Riehn)

Scotland's hopes of a result in this match did not last long, Uwe Kliess scoring from open play after only six minutes. The Scots did not give up and there was no further scoring until the final few minutes of the match, unfortunately for Germany who scored field goals through Harry Holzer in 64 minutes and Dieter Riehn three minutes later.

Scotland's hopes of a second chance vis the third place penalty shoot out now depended on South Africa failing to beat Italy in the final match in the pool, and had to travel back from Castelldefels to Real Club de Polo while that match was taking place, not knowing their fate. When they arrived, they found that South Africa had won 3-0 and taken third place, leaving Scotland fourth and out of the quarter finals.

Great Grand Masters Pool A

 

P

W

D

L

F

A

Pt

GD

England 4 3 1 0 12 1 10 11
Germany 4 3 0 1 11 2 9 9
South Africa 4 2 0 2 6 8 6 -2
Scotland 4 1 1 2 4 7 4 -3
Italy 3 0 0 3 1 13 0 -12

Pool B

Thursday 21 June

Spanish flag Spain 4 France 1 French flag
Ireland Flag Ireland 0 Netherlands 3 Netherlands Flag

Friday 22 June

Netherlands Flag Netherlands 9 France 0 French Flag
Spanish flag Spain 1 Japan 1 Japan flag

Saturday 23 June

IREland flag Ireland 1 Japan 3 Japan flag

Sunday 24 June

IREland flag Ireland 1 France 1 French flag
Japan flag Japan 0 Netherlands 2 Netherlands Flag

Monday 25 June

Netherlands Flag Netherlands 1 Spain 1 Spanish flag

Tuesday 26 June

Spanish flag Spain 6 Ireland 1 IREland Flag
Australian flag France 0 Japan 5 Japan Flag


Great Grand Masters Pool B

 

P

W

D

L

F

A

Pt

GD

Netherlands 4 3 1 0 15 1 10 14
Spain 4 2 2 0 12 4 8 8
Japan 4 2 1 1 9 4 7 5
Ireland 4 0 1 3 3 13 1 -10
France 4 0 1 3 2 19 1 -17

Pool C

Friday 22 June

Australian Flag Australia 1 Wales 0 Netherlands Flag
Belgian flag Belgium 0 New Zealand 2 New Zealand flag

Saturday 23 June

Netherlands Flag Wales 2 New Zealand 1 IREland Flag
Australian flag Australia 3 Belgium 0 Belgian Flag

Sunday 24 June

Netherlands Flag Wales 2 Belgium 1 Belgian flag
Australian flag Australia 2 New Zealand 2 IREland flag

Great Grand Masters Pool C

Australia won the group and Wales were second, both qualifying for the quarter finals. New Zealand, 2-0 winners over Belgium in the pool match, face them again, the aggregate winner going into a three way penalty shoot out to decide the two available quarter final places.

 

P

W

D

L

F

A

Pt

GD

Australia 3 2 1 0 7 4
Wales 3 2 0 1 6 1
New Zealand 3 1 1 1 4 1
Belgium 3 0 0 3 0 -6

Classification Matches

There was a complex arrangement to decide the final composition of the quarter finals. Six teams qualified by right as winners or runners up in their pools. The teams finishing third and fourth in Pool C, which has only four teams, (New Zealand and Belgium) played each other a second time and the aggregate winner (New Zealand) qualified for a three way penalty shoot out with the team finishing third in each of Pool A and B. The winner and runner up in the penalty shoot out qualified for the quarter finals, to play against the winners of Pool A and Pool C (avoiding playing a team they have already played). The winner of Pool B played the lower ranked (average points per match) of the teams finishing second in Pools A and C, and the remaining two teams finishing second in their pools played each other.

The winners of the four quarter finals will go on to compete for places 1-4 in the normal semi final and final format, and the losers will play off for places 5-8 using the same system. The third placed team which loses the penalty shoot out (South Africa) played the lowest ranked fourth placed team (average points per match) unless that is a team in the same first round pool, on which case it will play the next lowest ranked team - Belgium. The other two fourth placed teams played each other; Scotland, fourth in Pool A, met Ireland. The winners of the two ties (Belgium and Scotland) play off for places 9 and 10 and the losers for places 11 and 12. The two teams finishing fifth (Italy and France) play each other twice to decide the final two places.

Tuesday 26 June

New Zealand flag New Zealand 3 Belgium 0 Belgian Flag (aggregate 5-0 - New Zealand qualify for penalty shoot out)
Shoot out South Africa flag South Africa v Japan flag Japan v New Zealand flag New Zealand- winners Japan and New Zealand

Wednesday 27 June

England flag England 0 New Zealand 0 (1-0 SO) New Zealand flag QF
Spanish flag Spain 2 Germany 1 German Flag QF
Australian Flag Australia 5 Japan 2 Japan flag QF
Netherlands Flag Netherlands 1 Wales 3 Netherlands Flag QF

Thursday 28 June

Italian Flag Italy 1 France 3 Australian flag 13-14 Final (1)
Scotland Flag Scotland 1 Ireland 1 (2-1 SO) IREland Flag SF9-12
South Africa flag South Africa 0 Belgium 1 Belgian Flag SF9-12

Scotland 1 (Finlayson) Ireland 1 (Jordan) Shoot out Scotland 2 (Loudon, Gordon) Ireland 1 (Nawn)

This was the third time these two sides had met in 2018, Scotland having won 2-0 in the Celtic Cup and Ireland by the same score in the Home Internationals. It was no surprise that the result was close in this 9-12 first round play off. The first half was not eventful, being played mostly between the two 23 metre lines with no goalmouth incidents of note. Things improved in the second half, both sides beginning to mount meaningful attacks. A goal finally came when Mick Jordan's fierce strike from a penalty corner in 49 minutes beat Chris Kalman in the Scotland goal. Les Mitchell picked up a green card two minutes later and Ireland went on the offensive, but left themselves exposed at the back. George Finlayson picked up a clearance in his own half, and with two men in support drove all the way into the Irish circle and crashed the ball in to the net for the equaliser. The rest of the match swung from end to end but neither side could find a winner and the match went to a penalty shoot out.

Chris Kalman proved to be Scotland's hero in a tense finale to the match. Irish keeper Crawford McKee thwarted George Finlayson and Johnny Sudale while Raymy Parker and Bill Sedgewick were also unsuccessful for Ireland. Both sides scored their third running penalty, Gordon Loudon rounding Crawford McKee for Scotland and former Scottish player, now Irish Captain, Frank Nawn, doing the business against Chris Kalman. Peter Robertson for Scotland and Mick Jordan for Ireland saw their attempts blocked in the fourth round. Peter Gordon then put Scotland in the driving seat by scoring in the fifth round and it was all down to Chris Kalman, who stood tall and kept out Stuart Switzer to put Scotland through to the 9-10 play off.

Friday 29 June

Italian Flag Italy 1 France 3 Australian flag 13-14 Final (2)
England flag England 2 Wales 1 Netherlands Flag SF1-4
Australian Flag Australia 2 Spain 2 (4-2 SO) Spanish flag SF1-4
Japan flag Japan 2 Germany 1 German Flag SF5-8
New Zealand flagNew Zealand 2 Netherlands 2 (1-0 SO ) Netherlands Flag SF5-8
South Africa flag South Africa 0 Ireland 1IREland Flag 11-12 Final
Scotland Flag Scotland 0 Belgium 1 Belgian Flag 9-10 Final

Belgium 1 (Y. Hauptman) Scotland 0

Scotland fielded a depleted side in their final match to decide 9th place: Peter Gordon, George Finlayson, Johnny Sudale and Gerry McBride being on their way home when the match took place. With only twelve players, fortunately all fit, they faced thirteen Belgian players who put up stiff resistance and sneaked a goal in 48 minutes through Yaneck Hauptman to snatch victory from Scotland who ended in tenth place.

Saturday 30 June

Netherlands Flag Netherlands 2 Germany 1 German Flag 7-8 Final
New Zealand flag New Zealand 3 Japan 1 Japan flag 5-6 Final
Netherlands Flag Wales 2 Spain 0 Spanish flag 3-4 Final
England flag England 4 Australia 1 Australian Flag 1-2 Final

Scotland Squad

Ernie Brittain-Dodd, Jim Chisholm, Graham Conkie, Donald Dunbar, George Finlayson, Peter Gordon, Chris Kalman, Tim Lorimer, Gordon Loudon, Gerry McBride, Les Mitchell, Ken Moore, Peter Robertson, John Smith, Johnny Sudale, Doug Turner