England vs. India - Hockey at the Olympic Park Last week I went to visit my friend @BlueSkyBlues in London, because he had tickets for the final day of the London Prepares: Visa International Invitational Hockey Tournament at the Olympic Park, which was part of a series of warm up tournaments to test out how things would work before theactual Olympics start. The Olympic park is a strange place - it feels like a mixture of the swish bits of Birmingham, Milton Keynes, and a festival of some kind. It’s hard to pin down because obviously it wasn’t the full event, and the park isn’t quite finished yet, and I imagine it will feel completely different when the Games are underway, but right now it feels very artificial. And it doesn’t really feel anything like London either… Either way though, I had great fun! We arrived a bit late, but still saw most of  England vs. India in the Bronze medal match (which England won 2-1), and all of Germany against Australia in the final (which Germany won 5-2). The atmosphere was remarkably good (even though only three of the four the grandstands were full) with a small brass band playing Indiana Jones, The Great Escape, the Wallace and Gromit theme tune, and host of other crowd pleasers, with people clapping and cheering along. And the rain held off, thankfully, even if it wasn’t particularly warm! And yes, the pitch really is neon pink and blue astroturf. Apparently though, the official name for that particular pink is “London Pink”…
Pop-upView Separately

England vs. India - Hockey at the Olympic Park

Last week I went to visit my friend @BlueSkyBlues in London, because he had tickets for the final day of the London Prepares: Visa International Invitational Hockey Tournament at the Olympic Park, which was part of a series of warm up tournaments to test out how things would work before theactual Olympics start.

The Olympic park is a strange place - it feels like a mixture of the swish bits of Birmingham, Milton Keynes, and a festival of some kind. It’s hard to pin down because obviously it wasn’t the full event, and the park isn’t quite finished yet, and I imagine it will feel completely different when the Games are underway, but right now it feels very artificial. And it doesn’t really feel anything like London either…

Either way though, I had great fun! We arrived a bit late, but still saw most of  England vs. India in the Bronze medal match (which England won 2-1), and all of Germany against Australia in the final (which Germany won 5-2). The atmosphere was remarkably good (even though only three of the four the grandstands were full) with a small brass band playing Indiana Jones, The Great Escape, the Wallace and Gromit theme tune, and host of other crowd pleasers, with people clapping and cheering along. And the rain held off, thankfully, even if it wasn’t particularly warm!

And yes, the pitch really is neon pink and blue astroturf. Apparently though, the official name for that particular pink is “London Pink”…