The Hockey Museum’s inaugural City Lunch, a huge success!

The Hockey Museum » 2025 News Items » The Hockey Museum’s inaugural City Lunch, a huge success!

April 24, 2025

Three people, two Sikh men of South Asian heritage and a Caucasian woman, stand with a framed painting of a turbaned Indian man carving a wooden hockey stick by hand.

The Hockey Museum (THM) held its inaugural City Lunch last month (21 March 2025) at an impressive London hotel. The Lunch came about when Tochi Panesar, one of The Hockey Museum’s (THM) trustees, approached his friend from Spencer Hockey Club and prominent City businessman Tony Matharu as part of his personal fundraising initiative for THM in early 2024. Tony offered to host a lunch for 100 guests at his prestigious, sought after hotel location – The Skyline, London events space at Blue Orchid’s Tower Suites hotel. The Skyline has incredible panoramic views across London taking in the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast.

THM grasped this amazing opportunity for marketing, fundraising and getting the hockey family together in a relaxing social environment at a magnificent location.

The view down a long, narrow room. A lunch in progress with guests seated at large round tables.

A view down the length of The Skyline suite with the City Lunch in progress.

Several objects including a cap, a book and a bottle of port, sit on a round table in front a scenic view of London.

The view out of the window of The Skyline suite showing the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.

An organizing committee headed by Tochi was formed with the goal of creating a memorable event. Out of gratitude for their regular donations and consistent support, the Friends of The Hockey Museum were gifted with invitation preference as these well-wishers really are our lifeline without whom we could neither operate nor grow. Most of the available 100 spaces were taken up within a month of the launch!

Amazing teamwork across the THM planning committee created an event to remember! Our City Lunch featured an exhibition displaying objects from THM’s collection, an early view of our new portal that will hold a variety of searchable digitized magazines, and a short film that portrayed the work of THM, which you can now view on our website homepage. Tables were on theme with each one named after a hockey playing position and decorated with a fine display of flowers topped with custom-made hockey silhouette name stands. Our excellent trustees were also in attendance to host tables and act as ambassadors, with our staff team supporting the event.

A close-up photograph of one of the dining tables, showing bottles of wine and glasses around a centre piece of flower blue and white flowers and a white, plastic hockey figure.

The table designs featured flower bouquet centre pieces and 3D-printed hockey figures.

A view of a museum exhibition. In the foreground, four very old hockey sticks are mounted in frame. Several objects are displayed on tables with white and blue table cloths. A large screen shows a digital exhibit and across the back are three pop-up display banners and two mannequins showing 19th century hockey clothing.

The exhibition display at the City Lunch, which celebrated the 150-year anniversary of the first England men’s Hockey Association.

The formalities were opened by a welcome speech from Mike Smith, Hon. Curator and President of THM and the day was well conducted by triple Olympian Master of Ceremonies (MC) Simon Mason. Simon who was poignantly presented with his Great Britain (GB) honours cap by his ex-headmaster and life-long friend and mentor John Law.

An blading, elderly with white tufty hair and a tall, brown-haired, middle-aged man stand facing the camera, their hands clasped. The younger man holds a navy blue cap. They are both wearing navy blue suits and white shirts.

Event Master of Ceremonies Simon Mason (triple Olympian and Great Britain men’s player number 252) receives his GB honours cap from his long-time mentor John Law.

We were able to invite prominent attendees from around the sporting world with speeches from two amazing guest speakers.

Dame Katherine Grainger, a prolific international rower and outgoing Chair of UK Sport. She has an impressive record in double and quadruple sculls where she has won medals in five consecutive Olympic Games (gold in London 2012, and silvers in Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, and Rio 2016). She has collected seven World Championship gold medals. Following an MBE in 2006 and a CBE in 2013, she became Dame Katherine Grainger in 2017 in recognition of her charity work to increase the accessibility of sport to young and disadvantaged people. Earlier this month, Katherine took up her new role as Chair of the British Olympic Association following her term at UK Sport.

A Caucasian woman and a Sikh man of Indian heritage smile for the camera. She has shoulder-length brown hair and a black jacket over a light pink top. He has a grey beard and is wearing a black jacket and tie over a white shirt and a white turban.

Dame Katherine Grainger (Olympian and guest speaker) with Tochi Panesar (THM Trustee).

Dr Richard Dodds, former GB hockey captain, took us on the remarkable journey with his speech. He recalled exciting memories of his experience in the GB Men’s Olympic hockey team when they won the gold medal in 1988 Seoul. His speech was captivating and insightful. At one moment we were in the GB changing room reliving the experience of pre-match team talks! Fascinating insight into a great, iconic team.

Both keynote speeches were well received. In addition to this we had other distinguished guests, namely Angus Kirkland (EuroHockey), André Oliveira (International Hockey Federation), Dawn Bonner (England Hockey), GB president Sheila Morrow and former GB president Richard Leman.

A man with short grey hair wearing a light blue and white pin-stripped shirt and dark blue tie stands behind a lecturn looking around the room as he gives a speech.

Guest speaker, former Great Britain hockey captain and Olympic gold medallist Richard Dodds gives his keynote speech.

Three women smile for the camera in front of a museum exhibition. The furthest left is youngest; Caucasian with long brown hair and a black and white dress of abstract design. The middle women is Caucasian and elderly. She has grey hair and is waring a navy blue blouse with a light blue floral pattern. The right-most person is a Black woman of middling age. She is wearing a black cardigan over a white blouse with a pink and black leopard-style animal pattern. She wears glasses, a gold chain with a pendant and has short, bright pink hair.

From left to right: Clio O’Sullivan (THM Trustee), Sally Tippen (England Masters player) and Dawn Bonner (England Hockey Vice-president).

The excellent food and wine were enjoyed by all and it was a joy to see guests reconnect with friends and teammates from the past. It was THM’s pleasure to organise this event for the hockey family and primarily our valued Friends and supporters. We appreciated the very generous contributions and support for the raffle and auction, which raised much needed funds to enable THM to continue to give our sport’s history and heritage a secure future.

Two Caucasian men shake hands as a box with a navy blue cap is passed between them. The view out of the window is of the Tower of London.

David Knapp (THM Chair of Trustees) presents Sean Kerly’s Great Britain honours cap to Southgate Hockey Club President Richard Beechener, who bid successfully at auction.

Two Caucasian men wearing suits face the camera smiling, arms clasped around each other's shoulders.

Mark Kendall (left) and Mark Dauban (right), former England junior international players re-united at the City Lunch.

Once again, we extend our sincere thanks to Tony Matharu without whom this wonderful event would not have been possible. We have received fantastic generosity from an individual who in the last two years achieved Guinness World Records in doubles padel (paddle tennis) and doubles pickle ball marathons. Tony was also recently honored with the prestigious Freedom of the City of London for his outstanding contribution to the city.

Tower Suites hotel owner and Spencer Hockey Club member Tony Matharu (centre) with Tochi Panesar (THM Trustee) and Dame Katherine Grainger (Olympian and guest speaker). Tony was presented with a framed print of The Hockey Maker painting by the artist Aubrey Sykes.

The feedback we received at the event and also via our recent follow-up survey indicates that a future event will be appreciated and well supported. The planning team are keen to take these constructive critiques and positive comments forward and use them to continue to develop subsequent events.

We thank the hockey family for their continued generous support and Vicky Correia for lending her photography skills. We are quietly looking forward to hosting the next one!

Become a Friend of The Hockey Museum

If you would like to become a Friend of THM, supporting our work and with the opportunity to attend future events like our inaugural City Lunch, simply set up a regular donation using our online donation page. Regular donations between £30-£100+ annually will qualify you as a Friend of The Hockey Museum.

Thank you in advance for your generous support of our independent charity museum.

Donate – The Hockey Museum

Two elderly men one with short grey hair and glasses, the other bald with a goatee beard raise drinking glasses to the camera. One wears a navy blue suit jacket, pink shirt and navy blue tie. The other is wearing a white shirt and blue university tie.

Mike Smith (THM President and Hon. Curator) and Ian Jenkins toast a great event as the afternoon draws to an end.

From left to right: Heather Dichter (THM Trustee), Dame Katherine Grainger (Olympian and Chair of UK Sport), Katie Dodd (past Chair of THM) and Simon Mason (Olympian).

An elderly woman explains and points to something in the distance to two engaged listeners, one man and one woman.

From left to right: Christabel Russell Vick, Richard Dodds (Olympian guest speaker) and Katie Dodd (THM past Chair).

Two Caucasian men with greying hair smile for the camera. One is clean-shaven wearing a black jacket and light blue shirt. The other is bearded wearing a navy blue pin-stripped suit jacket with a white shirt. Both wear matching ties of red and black stripes.

Current and past Presidents of Southgate Hockey Club, Richard Beechener (left) and John Willmott (right). John is past Chair and a current Trustee of THM.