The altar at St Mary’s Chruch, Shalford in Surrey. Photographs courtesy of St Mary’s Church Shalford’s vicar, Rev’d Sarah Lloyd, and parish administrator, Kate Waldock.

Steve Woodward, a hockey player and international umpire, who died in 1992, has an unusual memorial: an altar cloth in his local church.

Susan Knight, Steve Woodward’s widow, said “I had seen the work [that textile artist] Grace Evans had done for Crookham Church and so I asked her to make the altar frontal for St Mary’s Shalford as a memorial to Steve. I left the design to Grace, but she asked all about Steve.”

Steve had played for Teddington Hockey Club’s first XI in goal and then captained the second team. From this position he had always ‘helped’ the umpire with his advice. After playing with his friend Rolf Horst in a Lloyds hockey match during which they were responsible for letting in several goals, the poachers decided to become game keepers and took up umpiring. Both eventually reached international level, indoors and out.

After his death the Steve Woodward Cup was introduced for umpires in the South of England to vote for the team that had best shown fair play, both on and off the pitch.

Stitched into the altar frontal, a pattern of hockey sticks embellishes the rays of the sun which encircle the central cross.

The altar frontal, which took an entire year to complete, was dedicated in 1995 and is still in regular use at St Mary’s. Due to its green colour, it is used on more days than any other – Christian holidays adopt certain colours but green is used all year round. To those who knew him, its colour is a particularly appropriate reminder of the hockey pitches so beloved by Steve.

Detail of the altar cloth showing the hockey sticks.