Sikhs, Lord's and Hockey

Published 21 January 2023: Sikhs, Lord's and Hockey (fieldhockey.com)

Comments / recollections:

Really enjoyed the read. In my time as a player and coach, I witnessed the immense contribution that Sikhs made at Hounslow (HS Sibia) of course at Slough ( Bal, Suti, and several others) in Singapore( Loomba Singh as national coach) in India playing against the greatest ot them all, Surgit & Ajitpal Singh) Also in a small settlement just 70 miles north of San Francisco called Yuba City where the entire local club was composed of Sikhs and in Kuala Lumpur where our trusted  Sapura club sweeper was nicknamed 'Mike' Singh, a full Malaysia international.   Not to mention a northern friend in hockey originally from the Punjab to Lancashire via Uganda( Raj Toor Singh) and my ole mucker of a Brummie umpire, ( Bawa Singh)  The list is endless, part of Hockey's folklore. So glad you have kept the story and heritage alive in such a positive way.
Gavin Featherstone

Loved this. Many famous names. I played with Suti in South Africa on a John Grimmer tour 
Denys C. Shortt OBE

Of particular interest to me as I was very involved with the the 1967 tournament at Lords and the Oval. I was based at Lords for the whole event, save when we moved out to Polytechnic and Richmond due to bad weather. My main job was working with Pat Rowley in the press office. Pat produced a strange "jelly based" printing kit. I had to hand write results/team sheets and other notices, in special ink. You then pressed the sheet onto the jelly surface. The ink stayed on the jelly and, after a short time, you could run off copies, which I then distributed to teams, press etc. You then had to melt the jelly to disperse the ink before you could start again. As you can imagine, you could only do this a few times before the jelly became too dark to use. You then had to start all over again. !! How times have changed.
I suppose I must be one of the few left who worked at the event. Used to drive up each day and park behind the main pavilion. Remember taking the Aussies out onto the pitch, when they first came to inspect it. Some were quite emotional at the thought that they were going to play at Lords. One young player had tears in his eyes when saying how he would be able to tell his grandchildren about it.
I was also at Lords to see Bal Saini's goal
Rodney Rigby

A huge amount of fascinating information - congratulations on a remarkable piece of research.
Shane Smith, Curator of The Hockey Museum 

I was stationed in Yorkshire at the time and remember watching the India/Pakistan game on TV. The previous week I had bought World Sports magazine in Hull and when I opened it on bus back to camp there was an article of few pages written by Pat Rowley on the Indian hockey team. I still have the article with me.
Pali Sumal