A gold medal six decades in the making

After six decades of playing hockey, the opportunity to represent Australia finally came up for Port Adelaide District Hockey Club’s Colin Ball.

Colin’s journey started in 1964 as a 12-year-old, rolling out in a C2 grade game filling in at the Enfield Hockey Club.

But finally, as a 75-year-old, Colin not only represented Australia, but won gold in the Men’s 75 team at the World Cup in the Netherlands and Belgium.

“It was my birthday, pretty coincidentally, so a pretty good birthday present,” Colin said.

“I knew the final was on my birthday, but the fact that we did play it and won it was fantastic.”

South Australia had a large contingent in the Men’s 75 team with Colin joined by Rodney Dyson, Winton Inkster, Kevin Keep, Michael Langan and Robert McNeil.

They were also coached by Jeff Waite, who is also from Port Adelaide District.

“It was my first time out with Australia, Jeff asked me to nominate last year when we went to the Nationals in Newcastle,” Colin said.

“I figured that I could fit into that team and turns out I got in, so I was really pleased with that.

“We then had a trial training camp at Port Adelaide in June, we played against New Zealand, we played three tests against them.

“We were basically a new group, players who played together before for Australia, but not in this age group. And there were a few of us new, so it was a bit of a new feeling.”

Australia were fantastic throughout the tournament and capped it off by beating Germany in the final in a dominant display.

“When we got to the tournament, we just improved game by game by game. It just got better and better,” Colin said.

“I think it just shows how the team grew, how we got more dominant. I think we were a lot fitter than the others.

“I’m so proud to have represented Australia.”