Sidmouth & Ottery Hockey coach Gus McVey has added to his extensive coaching portfolio on the turfs of Northern Ireland.
McVey played a major role in a very successful silver season for the club, helping the Sidmouth & Ottery Ladies reach second place in their West Central Division Two by two points, they also went on to reach the finals of the Devon Cup where they came away with the runners-up trophy silver medal after losing 4 -2 on a very wet day in Plymouth to a very well drilled Plymouth Marjon University team.
The Sidmouth & Ottery coach travelled with his England Masters team to Belfast in Northern Ireland to contest the four Nations 50s tournament.
The games were played at Queens University, with opponents being made up of the home nations of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
The opening game was played against the hosts Ireland and England scored early in the game for a quick advantage but Ireland equalised soon after through a very well-worked penalty corner.
While that was as good as it got for Ireland, the final score of 7 -1 did not portray the toughness of the game. This was to be the only goal conceded over the weekend. England’s fitness showed in the third quarter and the goals flowed from open play, leading to a convincing win in the end.
This opening game was to set the tone for the weekend, as the well-drilled England defence was relentless in their pursuit of keeping clean sheets. In the following games played against Wales and Scotland, it was the turn of the forwards to set the tone with goals in both games coming in the first ten minutes and never letting the either of the nations a chance to get back into the game.
England was able to score six goals in each game with no goals conceded in either fixture, giving them a clean sweep of wins, and proudly taking the silverware back to England.
Gus now has the challenge of taking on the top nine masters teams in Europe at the European Championship being held in Nottingham, starting June 30, 2023. Live streaming and tournament information can be found on https://worldmastershockey.org/wmhevents/2023-ec-nottingham/
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