A stalwart of the masters hockey scene, Echuca’s Ian Wright has again represented his country and came away with the hardware to prove it.
Wright’s latest success came with the Southern Cross over-80s side in The Netherlands, where his side claimed the silver medal at the International Grand Masters hockey festival, held from June 23-30 in The Hague.
The overall tournament, featuring grades starting from over-60s, featured about 150 teams from around the world.
Southern Cross first took on the home side, The Netherlands, and came away with a 2-2 draw.
In the second match of the tournament, Wright’s side took on Alliance, and with the scores tied 1-1, Wright himself stepped in to slot the winning goal for his team.
Coming off that success, the Southern Cross over-80s concluded the round-robin stage with a 2-1 win over an English outfit, Wright again getting his name on the score sheet.
With two wins and a draw, the Australians faced a rematch with the locals.
“We had to play the Dutch in the final and, unfortunately, Dutch umpires and playing a Dutch team in Holland wasn’t fantastic,” Wright said.
“We had a 1-0 loss and, needless to say, a lot of the guys weren’t happy with a lot of the decisions.”
It was a tense final quarter as the Southern Cross side attempted to level the ledger but couldn’t make the vital breakthrough.
“We thought we had the Dutch’s measure most of the time, but it was just in the last quarter we were all over them but couldn’t get decisions going our way, which was unfortunate,” Wright said.
Having scored two of his side’s six goals for the tournament and setting up two others for his teammates, Wright is showing no signs of slowing down in his 80s.
His representative career continues this weekend when he travels to Hobart to compete in the Australian championships for the Victorian over-75s.
“Sixty-four years I’ve been playing but, you know, I just love the game,” he said.
“I just love participating, particularly at my age level, which does make a big difference.”