Newcastle Hockey

Hockey is the oldest known stick and ball game, and there is evidence that it was played by the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Scots and Indians of South America.

There is evidence that a version of hockey was played up to 4 000 years ago by the Egyptians and then again at 1 000 BC by Ethiopia. There is other evidence indicating that it was played by the Romans and the Greeks.

Hockey became firmly established as a sport in the early part of the 19th century, the first Hockey club was established in 1849 at Blackheath in south east London.

From then on hockey has continued to evolve, and was dominated by the Indian and Pakistanis. The biggest changes coming in the early 1970's where artificial turf was first being used in competition. This also started a major evolution of the materials used to create hockey equipment and the tactics of play needed to be fine tuned thanks to the new even surfaces. Because of the expense of creating an artificial turf field, the Indian and Pakistani domination of the sport ended.

Field hockey is played on both natural and synthetic surfaces. Clear field definitions are established and Australia provides some of the world's best international hockey players. International hockey is governed by the FIH.