Andy Good (8950) has returned from South Africa with fond memories of a great experience, even though the England side he coaches just missed out on a medal in the over-40 women’s category of the Masters World Cup.  “It was a stunning experience really”, he said.  “It’s been a long time coming.  We were a year preparing for it.  South Africa was an amazing place, and it was a really well organised tournament.”

There were 13 teams in their category with England finishing fourth, which Good admitted was “about right” for their performances.  Australia won the tournament by beating Argentina in the final with England losing the Bronze medal game 2-1 to Chile, “Australia have got a really strong Masters programme and the South Americans, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay were really strong” said Good, who was assistant to head coach Richard Young. From the quarter-finals onwards, it was a really competitive high class tournament.  “We just missed out on a medal, which was a shame.”

England played three pool matches against Uruguay, Ireland and the IMC Masters before progressing to the last eight beating Wales on penalties to reach the semi-finals, where they lost to Australia by the only goal of the game.  

“The knockout matches – the quarter, the semi and the final – were all  very close being decided either by one goal or on penalties, so it was a high quality competition which you’d expect at the World Cup.  We’re back running up the programme again now because we’ve got the European championships in Valencia in June.  We’ve started again for that, picking a new team for the Europeans.  We’ve got about 60 trialists, so it’s really popular, and the standard is very high.  They’re all serious players still.”