FIH Masters World Cup ft. Peter Jones!

Congrats to our own @peterwins who has been appointed (I think I have this right) as both the head coach and a player for the USA team traveling to the inaugural FIH Masters World Cup this August after the Olympics at the Canterbury hockey club in England.

Full story on the USA Field Hockey website.

Thanks Keely. I had the chance to play in the last two IMHT unofficial world cups in Singapore (2011) and Hong Kong (2009) and they were fantastic events. The level of play was great, the umpiring was strong and almost all the players had a very positive approach. I am delighted that we have been able to put together a USA team to enter this first official FIH Masters World Cup and am looking forward to some great competition.

Will anyone else from FHF be participating?

Congratulations, Peter!

Peter - will have to meet up with you. I am over there coaching one of the Aussie women's teams.

that's great. which one? are you playing any other matches or tournaments in europe before the world cup?

Won in Hong Kong, Won in Singapore - Time to retire ! Should be a great tournament though with a lot of new teams

Coaching the Aussie women 40's - no pre tournament warm up. Just a couple of days training in Canterbury before the event.

should be fun. look forward to seeing you there.

They've tightened up the nationality requirements for this one so we won't be able to put an Indonesian team in and the Singapore vets are just too dis-organised. Would have been nice to go and play in the cold.

Got a few friends going with both the 2 Aussie Womens teams. It's certainly one of my goals to play in this tournament if this one turns out to be a success (which I am sure it will be). Best of luck to all involved, especially your squad Schooner_69!

On the mens side it looks like it's going to be a great success - on the ladies side it looks like very few teams have come forward so far. With GB (women) having gone to Aus last summer Aus were sort of obliged to come over for this. On the face of it even the home countries of Wales and Scotland aren't attending - maybe after the home internationals next month they will confirm?

Got GB on the brain! It was England O45/40's (mixed team based on 2010 squads) that went to Aus for a few Masters matches against Aus. for the WC at Canterbury it's individual countries not GB.

They England team played a Tri Series with NZ as well in Aussie last year. They barely scrapped a team together by the last game they were down to about 10. Its pretty poor if the home nations can't compete on their home turf. They had a pathetic turn out in 2007 as well in Birmingham, if others can travel half way across the world and they can't make it half way across the road !!

I guess it depends on how it was sold. Singapore was absolutely swamped with England players for the mens masters here recently.

think its more on the Ladies side where they have trouble getting good numbers.

Australian sides we don't see, to have the issue. Masters (used to be called veterans gere till recently) continues to grow in Australia both in women's and men's.

They could have easily have taken more players down last summer but wanted to stick with players who had played O40's/O45's for England in the previous season when plans were first put together for the trip after the Champions Trophy Games at Nottingham. You also can't legislate for a player who ended up in hospital after a bad reaction on the flight down!

Just about every team pays for the trips themselves and to commit to various tournaments around the UK and the odd trip overseas - you can understand why some teams think an unproven event may be a trip too far. (While one team went to Aus last year, the Eng O40's team went to Greece last Sep - neither were cheap trips).

Wdyw - my main point was that last time the IMHT was played in the Northern Hemisphere (Birmingham 2007), the organisation was a shambles and Australia and NZ were able to muster teams in all grades but the home nations (except England) failed to support the event and it appears the same is going to happen this year. The Scots and Irish men have managed to travel to HK and Singapore in good numbers its a pity the women can't follow suit when the tournamant is in the UK.