Ireland Masters Hockey has chosen Bedford as its base to host a weekend of friendly international matches on Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th February. Ireland have invited squads from Wales and England to play a series of matches over the weekend, as part of their build up to the Masters Hockey World Cup, being held in Spain this summer (2018).

The weekend gives both Bedford Hockey Club and Bedford Town, a great opportunity to proudly show their abilities to host an international sports event, with over 40 players and supporters staying in Bedford on Saturday and a further 30 visiting for the Sunday. It is hoped that this will establish Bedford as a centre for future larger scale events, with Bedford Hockey Club’s two pitches & potential club development.

Bedford Hockey Club has also been asked to put out a team to play the Irish Over 60’s World Cup training squad.

The details for the weekend are as follows:
Ireland will play Wales and England in a series of friendly training matches across both the over 55’s and over 60’s age groups. Ireland are bringing ten players of the over 60’s squad that finished 4th in the European Cup and eight players from the over 55’s, that played in Tilburg last summer.

The games for this weekend are as follows:
Saturday 17th February:
13.00-15.00 push back 13.30
Ireland over 55’s v Wales over 55’s
15.00-17.00 push back 15.30
Ireland over 60’s v Bedford Select

Sunday 18th February:
10.00-12.00 push back 10.30
Ireland over 55’s v Wales over 55’s
12.00-14.00 push back 12.30
Ireland over 60’s v England over 55’s
14.00-16.00 push back 14.30
England over 55’s v England over 60’s

The weekend will allow each of the nations the opportunity to look at their squads for the World Cup tournaments later this year. The Welsh Over 55’s finished 4th at the Europeans, England Over 55’s are the current World Champions and England Over 60’s are the European Champions.

Bedford Hockey Club looks forward to welcoming as many people as possible to Chester Road to watch a good standard of competitive hockey and to support this event.