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| Cover of the programme for the Grand International Hockey Tournament during the Festival of Britain, 1951.
Click the image to download the full programme as a PDF. |
Seventy years ago in May 1951, a very unusual sporting event was staged at Twickenham Rugby Stadium in West London. It involved men’s and women’s teams from England, Scotland, Holland (the Netherlands), Belgium and France. No, this wasn’t any sort of rugby get together – the teams were international hockey teams who had been invited to play in the 1951 Festival of Britain Grand International Hockey Tournament.
At the start of the 1950s, Britain was still recovering from the turmoil of World War 2 and the Government decided the stage a ‘Festival of Britain‘ with the aim of promoting recovery, celebrating British industry, arts and science, and inspiring the thought of a better Britain.
While sport got little coverage in any of the official reports about the Festival, many different sporting events were organised. The Hockey Association (HA) approached the All England Women’s Hockey Association (AEWHA) with the view to organising an international hockey event at Twickenham Rugby Stadium. This was a bold move as this was not a venue used before for hockey. While the Rugby Football Union agreed to the proposal, they did set a fee of £900 for the use of the facilities – this was a sum considerably more than the HA took in annual subscriptions every year. Evidently, the HA was confident that a tournament associated with the national festival would pull in the spectators to cover this cost and everyone would enjoy international standard hockey in the May sunshine. It didn’t all go to plan.
The event was organised for 12, 14 and 15 May and the programme shows that two women’s teams took part (England and Scotland) and four men’s teams: England, Holland (the Netherlands), Belgium and France. Throughout the tournament, the England men’s team did not play well with Hockey News magazine describing the home sides first match performance as “pitiful” and that “although Belgium only won by the odd goal, their players were infinitely superior throughout in speed, tactics and stickwork”. They went on to lose 3-2 to Holland on the Monday and while they did beat France 5-0 on the final day it did not raise the spirits much. The standard of the pitch did play a part as it was nothing like the flat grass surfaces England would have played on at venues like Lord’s cricket ground.
The only women’s game in the event was played on the Saturday and by mid-afternoon, the crowd had swelled to nearly 6000, many of them schoolgirls and groups arriving from clubs around the south east of England. They were treated to a much better game that was well contested, but England’s clinical goal-scoring enabling them to eventually run out 6-1 winners. Both the men’s and women’s press of the day complimented the teams for their accurate and speedy attacking play despite the challenges of the very uneven grass pitch.
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| Scotland women’s team of 1951. Janet Macklin is standing back row, second from the right. |
Janet Smallwood (now Macklin) was one of the players on the pitch that day. Now in her nineties and living in Devon, Janet gained her first international cap for Scotland in this match and was the scorer of Scotland’s only goal. We think that Janet might be the only player from this event who is still alive. It must have been particularly special for her to play at the home of rugby as her father, Alistair Smallwood, played rugby for England in the 1920s and would have played on the Twickenham turf on many occasions.
Janet’s main memories of the game were the noise of the crowd – full of schoolgirls she recalls – and how bad the pitch was. She enjoyed the game despite being on the losing side and made more memorable by scoring Scotland’s only goal.
Read more about Janet’s hockey career here, and hear a short clip or her memories immediately below.
From the press coverage afterwards, the HA were criticised heavily for taking on such a high-risk financial undertaking with little guarantee of support from the hockey-playing public. The weather wasn’t great, particularly on the final two days where spectator numbers were less than 1500. On the other hand, the women’s part in the event attracted much bigger crowds. Maybe this is not surprising as this event was not long after the first ever women’s hockey international match to be played at Wembley Stadium (March 1951), where 30,000 spectators attended. This would have undoubtedly provided a ready pool of people keen to attend another event.
In the end, it appears that the Rugby Football Union took a charitable approach to the issue of a fee and their records note “It was agreed that in view of the small attendances at the Festival Tournament at Twickenham on the 12th and 14th May and the heavy expenditure involved by the Hockey Association, that the usual charges for the use of the ground be waived”. So not the financial disaster for the HA that had been anticipated.
The event did finish on a high with a black-tie dinner at the Café Royal for all the players, organisers, and many representatives from around Britain and the rest of the world. Maybe this should be considered the success of the event as it helped to build friendships across the hockey family?
By Katie Dodd
