Masters glory for England ace Mike

9:30am Friday 3rd October 2008

Braintree Hockey Club’s Mike Surridge helped England to victory at the Grand Masters over-60s Hockey World Cup in Hong Kong.

England beat Australia 4-1 in the final, with Surridge scoring his side’s first from a short corner deflection to help them win gold.

England had earlier had wins over Italy, Holland, Japan and Australia - where Surridge scored and was man-of-the-match - in the preliminary group stages of the competition.

England progressed into the Super group stage along with Germany, Hong Kong and Australia, as the top two teams from each group.

With the results from the previous rounds against the qualifiers being carried forward, England went into the final, having beaten Hong Kong and Australia.

The re-match against the Australians in the final was not a forgone conclusion.

The team from Down Under had regained their form to beat Germany 5-3 and turn their tournament around.

But England’s professional approach to the tournament was evident from the start of the match, which was made up of four quarters rather than the normal two halves, to allow the teams to rehydrate in the hot conditions.

The whole squad were fit and raring to go, after many months of hard training.

However, it was not until the second quarter that Surridge helped England make the breakthrough from a penalty corner.

Again, it was a penalty corner just before half-time that increased England’s lead.

Two superb open play goals in the third quarter put the result beyond doubt.

And although Australia managed to pull a goal back just before full-time, they had to concede afterwards that they had been out-played and out-thought.

Surridge, who has been playing hockey for more than 40 years, started at Broxbourne and has also played for the likes of Chelmsford and Witham.

He joined Braintree in 1988 and has also represented Essex and Hertfordshire over the years.

Surridge is now looking forward to the European Championships in Amsterdam next year.

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