In response to the many enquiries that we receive at The Hockey Museum our volunteers are constantly trawling through hockey publications in search of information. These searches often take twice as long as expected because we find unrelated pieces that are very interesting.

One such piece was discovered recently in Hockey Sport magazine from April 1997. What is more, we actually have one of these sticks in our collection!

April 1 2016

This features page includes articles from hockey's rich history. With the ever increasing activity of The Hockey Museum, our research is constantly coming across fascinating stories from throughout the sport's history and across the hockey world. These are not current news stories although some may have been when they occurred. Often the passing of time has embellished the story making it an even more interesting read today.

If you know of any points of interest or intrigue in hockey's 'past' then please let us know and we will investigate to see if it is worthy of a 'blast'! Get in touch through our contact form.

Hockey players on the beach at Minehead with North Hill behind. Photograph by Alfred Vowles. 

Unlike most of today's youngsters who learn to play on artificial pitches, Nan Williams, a former England international and volunteer at The Hockey Museum (THM), started her playing career on the sands of Minehead on the north Somerset coast. In the 1950s, the home pitches for Minehead HC were marked out each week on the local sands and bully off times depended on the tides. It might seem like another world, but the surface still encouraged great skills as a press article from October 1952 reports; "Minehead 1^st XI achieved a really well merited win – the forward line gave an excellent display with the two young wingers working like Trojans and using their speed and skill to the fullest advantage." Those two wings were Liz Venning (nee Boobier) and Nan Williams (nee Morgan) and both went on to play for Somerset, the West and England!

Nan has researched this amazing period of the club's historywhich is downloadable by clicking the icon to the left. She used old club records and press reports of the time. It is an affectionate account of games played on the sands of Minehead between the 1920s and 1950s.

Hockey has probably been played on sand for as long as the game has been in existence. Forms of sand hockey such a Genna (played in Ethiopia), Oggaf (Tunisia) and Nomad Hockey (Morocco) date back over hundreds of years and a number of these games are still thriving, almost unchanged, to this day.

A quick search of 'sand hockey' on Google will also show you how many different versions of the old and modern game there are. There has even been a World Sand Hockey Festival in Holland in 2014 on the beaches near The Hague (click here) where the players use a slightly changed stick with holes in the head. The different forms of sand hockey are often played to slightly different rules, number of players, pitch size but they still bear a significant resemblance to the modern game of hockey.

Over time, THM is looking to develop the full stories of all these ancient and modern versions of hockey played on sand. If you have any information on any forms of sand hockey or are interested in getting involved please contact THM Curator through our contact form.

Katie Dodd, January 2016

I have recently joined the many volunteers working with the The Hockey Museum. As I live in the Manchester area I am quite away from all the action, however I have recently been forwarded a couple of enquires from the Museum in relation to matters from the North!

My first enquiry was in relation to the English Cup. A request had been forwarded to the Museum from Alan Lancaster. He had a photograph (left) of his mother, Doreen Lancaster nee Howles and her two sisters, June Taylor and Vera Simpson holding the 'English Cup'. He also had a picture of the team with an inscription on the back: "English Cup Winners – Newhey". The picture was from the early 1950s. The Museum did not have any knowledge of the English Cup and so asked if I could have a look into it.

Further information from Alan stated the three sisters also played for Bury Ladies Hockey Club and that his mother also played cricket for Littleborough and England.

Newhey is a district in Rochdale and early research with Rochdale Museum did not produce any information. Research on the internet again produced no results in relation to the cup or the Newhey team. However I was speaking to a friend of mine about the enquiry and she invited me to go the Bolton Archives Department with her as she was doing some research in relation to the Bolton Sunday Schools League (later Sport Federation) which is 100 years old in 2016. The department had four minutes books for the league going back to 1929, the earlier books are missing. I began looking in the book covering the period 1941-1953 and, believe it or not, on the second page I came across an entry in relation to the English Cup. Looking further at this book and one covering the period 1929-1941, I came across a number of references to the English Cup including part of the draw for the first round of the 1940 competition, names of the umpires for the 1942 competition, references to how many teams the league should enter in the 1944 competition and an entry requesting that the teams that enter the competition be given a grant by the league towards expenses; a point that the committee ruled against. I also found references to the ELHL Association, who appear to be involved in the organisation of the English Cup.

I am continuing with my research and hope to find out much more but if anyone has any information about the three sisters, the English Cup, Newhey Ladies Hockey Club, Bury Ladies Hockey Club or the ELHL Association, please get in touch with the museum (contact form).

My second enquiry involves a Manchester or Salford team from the 1920s. I have a picture of the team (above) and again they are holding a cup. Strangely the picture only has ten players. I have not been able to find out too much about this team yet but hope to do further research into who they were and what the cup was that they are holding. Could it be the English Cup? It looks strikingly similar to the cup in Alan Lancaster's photograph.

If you are interested in hockey and the history of the sport then I would recommend you volunteer to help the museum. I have really enjoyed looking into the history of the game in the North West and I am sure that I am only scratching at the surface of the information that is out there but may be lost if we don’t help to preserve it and record it.

Mark Evans, 16 August 2015