NOHC on Radio 5 Live for Tokyo Olympics

BBC Radio 5 Live request sparks interest......

Out of the blue, on 15th July, Judy Tait from BBC Radio 5-Live contacted the club via our website to see if we would be interested in doing a piece as part of their national coverage of the Olympics in Tokyo.

"During the games we’re keen to speak to fans and participants of sports which are part of the Olympics this year. I wondered if someone from your club would be willing to spare us some time to talk about why hockey is great to play, how everyone can get involved and what you make of the Olympic actions so far."

"The idea is to talk about how Olympic sports are being played all the time, at all levels around the UK."

"Let me know if you are interested and would like to know more." Judy wrote.

Sensing too good an opportunity to miss, we went back to Judy to let her know that we were definitely interested and had some history of our own with the Olympics! We could possibly even include an Olympian to help with the story!!

Judy was thrilled with the response and so it was that at 10 o'clock on a Sunday evening, our own Gareth McCullough and Billy McConnell found themselves on a group telephone call with the BBC 5 Live presenter Dotun Adebayo, recording a fifteen minute podcast.

The conversation was well balanced between enlightening the UK audience on the sport of hockey in general and the history and future plans for our own club.

"How did the club get its name?" was the first question from Dotun. "Why is hockey such a great sport to play?" Why are some parts of the world better at hockey than others?" were some of the more challenging questions.

Gareth and Billy answered the questions really well and left the listeners in no doubt that not only was hockey a great game for everyone of all abilities and all ages, but that Newry Olympic was keen to grow the sport and welcomed all-comers to the club to give hockey a go.

Due to the time difference with Japan, the podcast was transmitted at 03:45 in the morning on Monday 26 July, just before the second GB men's pool game in Tokyo against Canada. Although available initially only to insomniacs or enthusiastic hockey early risers, the recording was made available on BBC Sounds for seven days.