The day of the tournament arrived, with the usual glorious summer weather we have come to expect from Newcastle when putting on a summer event i.e. constant drizzle for the duration! However, nothing was going to dampen the enthusiasm of the players and as 6pm approached there was a distinct buzz of energy around the Coach Lane pitch.

The group games started bang on 6pm after a short scramble to get all of the teams onto the correct pitches and the hockey began in earnest. It didn't take long for the players to spot the face-painting table, where Maddie and Fi were perfecting their flags, and soon there were some very serious discussions going on at the technical table as everyone attempted to work out whether they had time to get their faces painted before dashing back onto the pitch for the next game.

The group games all ran to perfect time thanks to Cath on the technical table sticking to the schedule with military precision, and both the players and team managers organising themselves to get one set of teams off and the next set on within the 2 minutes between games putting many a senior tournament player to shame. The U10s were spectacularly good and seemed to be aiming for under a minute!

There was also a huge volume of cake consumed during the tournament, supplied from Fran's cake stall and all of which had been lovingly baked by club members.

After some frenzied calculating of points the semi-finals got underway, closely followed by the group 3rd vs 3rd, and 4th vs 4th games. The end was in sight, and as Elaine had built in a whole 5 minute break before the finals, Fi decided that a mass photo was in order. You can see the result in the article main photo - a cacophony of colour and smiling hockey faces.

The U10 final was a nailbiter between China (WB&T) and Argentina (also WB&T). When the final horn went China walked away with the victory and the U10 World Cup. The U12 final was made up of countries more usually associated with hockey finals; England (NHC) and Australia (MHC). Everyone played their socks off in the final, but it was Australia that finally came away with the title.

So Congratulations! to Whitley Bay and Tynemouth's U10 China team and Morpeth's U12 Australia team. Also a huge thanks has to go to everyone who made the tournament possible; Elaine for being Chief Organiser and admin minions, Maddie and Fi for the very popular face-painting table, Fran for running the cake stall, all of the umpires, and in particular Al and Hels who umpired from start to finish, all of the team managers and supporters, and also a huge thank you to all of the young players for some excellent hockey.

Don't forget to check out the World Cup photo album for more pics from the day, team photos, and also a quick pic of some of the cakes before they were hoovered up.

See you all again for the next World Cup!!