The Two Oldest Hockey Tournaments, Irish Senior and Junior Cup

Hockey originated 4,000 years ago in Egypt, but Ireland has the two oldest hockey tournaments, the Irish Senior Cup (ISC) and the Irish Junior Cup (IJC). These two tournaments are played between teams all over Ireland, every year since over 100 years ago.


Picture belongs to www.hockey.ie

The Irish Senior Cup started up in the year 1894, and is the oldest hockey tournament in the world. This competition is played between all the clubs' senior 1st teams in Ireland. Clubs such as YMCA, Three Rock Rovers, and Monkstown from Leinster, Banbridge and Lisnagarvey from Ulster and Cork C of I from Munster. This is the most prestigious tournament in the whole of Ireland and I fortunately got to play in it this year. I played for YMCA against Pembroke Wanderers in the first round of the ISC 2014/15. Unfortunately we lost after extra time but it was a close game and a great honour to play in the oldest hockey competition worldwide. These are the clubs that have won the competition for the last 10 years.

2004	Instonians
2005	Lisnagarvey
2006	Cork Harlequins
2007	Glenanne
2008	Pembroke Wanderers
2009	Pembroke Wanderers
2010	Glenanne
2011	Cookstown
2012	Cork Harlequins
2013	Monkstown
2014	Three Rock Rovers

The Irish Junior Cup is the second oldest hockey tournament and it began in 1895, just one year after the Irish Senior Cup. This trophy is between all of the Senior 2nd teams in Ireland. This is yet another competition that I have had the pleasure of playing in. These are the clubs that have won the competition for the last 4 years.

2011          Monkstown 2s 

2012          Lisnagarvey 2s

2013          Corinthians 2s

2014          Monkstown 2s

So there's just a small post on the two oldest hockey tournaments still running year after year at the moment. The next post on the Best Hockey Blog will be about the field hockey world rankings.

The Origins of Hockey

The modern game of hockey as we all know it today is totally different to what it was years and years ago. The rules, equipment and playing surfaces have all changed and are still changing in order to make the game faster and more exiting. Hockey is an ever-changing sport but here at the Best Hockey Blog, we take you back to the very beginning.


Games played with a ball of some kind and curved sticks were found thousands of years ago in many different countries. 4000 year old carvings can be found in Egypt showing teams playing with curved sticks and a ball.






This image belongs to Han Borg

In other cultures, other types of games similar to hockey can be found. For example if you go back to before 1272 BC in Ireland, hurling was starting up and was and is very similar to hockey. Ireland actually has plays a very big part in the origin and development of hockey. The two oldest hockey competitions are both based in Ireland. They are, the Irish Senior Cup (ISC) and the Irish Junior Cup (IJC).


That's all for this post but there will be more from the Best Hockey Blog soon.

Welcome to the Best Hockey Blog

Welcome to the Best Hockey Blog, here you will be able to read and learn about the geography and history of the brilliant sport of hockey. My name is Jack O'Grady and I play and am very interested in hockey, I will take you through the origins and the geography of this wonderful sport.