The men’s County Championship flag is one of The Hockey Museum’s more treasured possessions: it is unique and tells so many stories. It embraces several historical aspects of hockey and wider sport in England, and it is definitely a ‘one off’.

The flag is 65 years old and from an era when County Championships existed in many sports, especially cricket and rugby. However during that period, in hockey, competition for trophies was not allowed in England. It was considered to be against the amateur ethos that hockey had supported since the inception of the game in the 1870s.

By the 1950s there was a growing appetite for competition, although it would be another two decades before club league hockey would surface. The County Championship was the first domestic breach in the ‘no competition’ stance of hockey, but rather than the award of a trophy a flag was deemed to be more appropriate!

At that time, most sports people gave strong allegiance to their native or adopted county and to represent one’s county at any sport was considered a great accolade. It sounds almost romantic, and perhaps it was. It was a time when people stayed with their club for life and allegiance to one’s county was almost inbred.

It can be seen from the names of the winning counties on the flag that the men’s Championship was won by teams from the length and breadth of the country. This perhaps demonstrates a more even spread of hockey talent throughout the land at a time when international players were drawn from far and wide, and their recognition would have started with county representation. This could not happen today as Great Britain Hockey’s Elite Development Programme is centralised at Bisham Abbey. It is now a professional hockey world and the days of the County Championship for hockey were truly amateur.

Lincolnshire County Hockey Association team, County Championship Winners, 1957/1958 season.

The inaugural County Championship Dinner, 1958.