CSB - Ken Maplesden - Masters Hockey World Cup

The National Hockey Centre – North Harbour is set to host the Masters Hockey World Cup 2024 from the 7th to the 16th of November. This prestigious event will bring together 129 teams from 23 countries, featuring over 2600 competitors across various age groups. 

 

The Masters Hockey World Cup 2024 has been spread across two tournaments, and the Auckland event follows the Masters World Cup, which was held in Cape Town, South Africa last month. 

 

The Auckland event will include 12 teams from New Zealand competing alongside international teams in age categories ranging from 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, and 70 for both men and women, plus two Barbarian teams. This event promises to be a significant gathering of hockey talent from New Zealand and across the world.

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
To the sharing shed.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
It's the Country Sport Breakfast with Brian Kelly on Gold Sport.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Well.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
The National Hockey Center at North Harbor in Auckland is
hosting the Masters Hockey World Cup. It gets underway today,
had the opening ceremony yesterday and this is a prestigious event.
One hundred and twenty nine teams from twenty three countries.
Acting CEO of New Zealand Hockey Ken Madison joins us
this morning.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Ken, Good morning, Kidan, Brian, how are you today?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Very well? Thank you. This is such a huge event.
I think something like two and a half thousand plus competitors.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah, it's fantastic to have. Yeah, as you just said,
one hundred and twenty nineteens from twenty three country so yeah,
about two and a half thousand competitors and another one
hundred and fifty tournament officials and umpires and the like.
So yeah, it's superb to have it here and yond.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
So you're using what North Harbor, you're using the Hockey
Center there and also another venue in Auckland.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, that's right. So our main base will be the
National Hockey Center at North Harbour where this five pictures.
But there's so many teams that we need an overflow
out at Lord Elsmore Park and Hawick for a few
days at the tournament just to get all the games.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
And absolutely fantastic. So let's look at the different age
group because we've got twelve teams from New Zealand where
we have teams in every age group.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yeah, that's right. So there's ten different age groups, six
and the women's and four and the men. So we
start at the forty five and then the men's we
go up to the over sixties and five year age brackets,
and then the women's we go up to the over seventies.
So the World Master's Hockey World Cup is so big
now that they've split it into two events. So the

(01:37):
other age groups have already occurred in Cape Town and
South Africa a couple of weeks back, where we had
five teams go over and then we've got the other
age groups happening here. So yeah, it's going to be
a fantastic ten days of hockey.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Twelve teams from New Zealand. How do we fare on
the master's scene.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
That's a great question. It's fair to say that there's
you're never quite sure who's going to turn up given
it's all you know, user pays and community hockey. So
but the Australians and the Dutch and the Germans and
the likes are always really strong. But we've got a
really proud history and masters hockey and New Zealand are
really kind of growing part of our sports. So all

(02:15):
of our teams will represent well and hopefully we get
some medals and some podium places at the end of
the ten days.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
It's fascinating that in the women's section you've got even
the seventy plus category, which is great.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, so this is the first time that New Zealand's
had an over seventies team competed at World Cup. So
many of those players were actually part of our very
first master's thirty five team a few years ago, it's
fair to say now and they're still competing representing their
country at World Cup. So and look that just you know,
it shows the true kind of all ages aspect of

(02:50):
our sport that we're from five years old right through
to seventy seven year old representing their country. So it's yeah,
it's really superb and.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
I imagin six hundred plus competitors, there'd probably be a
few World champions from different countries, a few Olympians in
those teams.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, certainly there is a smattering of kind of ex
Olympians and high performance players. Dave Kasouf, who's actually the
chair of North Harbor Hockey, turning up for one of
the teams. He played one hundred and forty nine tests
I believe for the Black Sticks back in the day.
So and certainly across the international teams that have come
down there's a fair amount of Internationals and Olympians and

(03:30):
the likes. So look, the standard will be be pretty high,
and on Finals Day and Saturday week we'll certainly see
some really top notch games of hockey. So it's all
free entry, so really encourage people to get down and
enjoy the atmosphere.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Does the same rules apply for masters hockey as they
do to standard hockey or the slightly shortened games.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
No, it's a full international rule, so yeah, they play
four fifteen minute quarters as you would at the Olympics,
and penalty corners and all the other rules apply. So
it's yeah, the hockey they take it pretty seriously once
there on the field, that's for sure, albeit that their
post match nutrition and might be a little bit different

(04:14):
to the high performance players.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Well, it promises to be an absolutely amazing tournament. So Ken,
thank you so much and good luck for the next
two weeks.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, really appreciate it, and thanks so much for taking
the time to give us, give us a bit of
air time about this great event that we're hosting over
the next few days.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Absolutely Ken, Ken Mableston, CEO, Acting CEO of Hockey New Zealand.
All of the mainly the National Hockey Center on the
North Shore, but also at Lloyd Ellesmore Park as well
being played right across the next