LONDON
A friendly hockey match was recently played by Goans in honour of two well-known hockey players, goalkeeper Filomeno De Souza (88) and midfielder Dudley D’Cruz (83), who have served their clubs and the Goan community in the UK for the last 50 years.
A combined GI/Etessa (BTi) HC Vets team took on Spencer HC Vets from Wandsworth at the HSBC Sports Club in Beckenham on August 25.
HSBC has one of the best sporting facilities in South London and is about 2 mins away from the Crystal Palace Training Ground, situated in the suburbs of South London.
Both sides fielded many veteran players (50’s to 60’s) with a sprinkling of a few younger players in their 30’s.
The GI/Etessa (BTi) team comprised many former players from these 2 Clubs.
Etessa (BTi) was a Club that played in the Middlesex League and Dudley D’Cruz was a player/manager of it for many years. There were many ex-Goan hockey players who used to play for this club, including Glyn Albuquerque, Sukor Da Silva, Derek Monserrate, Merryl De Souza, Lister D’Costa, Matthew Carvalho, Rozario Barretto, Clive Mathias, Phillip Fernandes, Ephraim.
This was an ideal opportunity to meet up on a social level, as many of these players have retired from playing competitive hockey.
The team on the day was captained by Sukor Da Silva and contained two well-known ex-players, Nigel D’Cruz (full-time hockey coach), ex-national league and European Cup and Inderjit Ubhi (ex-Middlesex and national league player).
Spencer HC had players with links to Goan HC with Anthony and Romeo De Souza in their ranks and many familiar faces who played over many years. They also fielded an ex-England player in midfield, Mark Precious, besides 3-4 ex-county players in their ranks.
The match was evenly contested and played in reasonably good spirits. The match ended up 5-4 in favour of GI/Etessa HC
Both teams then joined the spectators for some refreshments of sandwiches, teas and drinks in the clubhouse.
During the refreshment break, there were two speeches made on behalf of the two Octogenarians, Filomeno De Souza (88) and midfielder Dudley D’Cruz (83), where they were each presented with a bottle of single malt whisky to enjoy at their leisure.
The main organiser, Richard Fernandes from Wisel Productions, spoke about Filo Desouza, ex-Uganda, who played as a goalkeeper for several clubs and represented Kampala GI & Sikh Union in the Gold Cup in Nairobi.
Filo later emigrated to the UK and joined the Goan Hockey Club where he played till his retirement from the sport.
Glyn Albuquerque, who umpired the match, delivered a fitting tribute to the life and times of Dudley D’Cruz.
Richard Fernandes then thanked everyone on his committee who helped make this event an enjoyable and successful one.
The committee comprised Richard Fernandes (organiser), Sukor Da Silva (chief co-ordinator), Glyn Albuquerque, Cyril Rapose (manager of GI Etessa) Plino Martins, Ilona Fernandes, Darren Fernandes and Tochi Panesar (captain of Spencer Hockey Club).
