All England Women's Hockey Association
The All England Women's Hockey Association was an English sports association for women's hockey until 1996 . The association was founded in 1895 by six English women's hockey clubs after their application for membership as the English Ladies' Hockey Association in the Hockey Association (HA) was rejected. It was thus the first sports association in England for women, and after the Irish Ladies Hockey Union founded a year earlier, it was the second oldest women's hockey association. Due to the rejection by the HA , the following passage was anchored in the statutes:
"... that no man is allowed to function as an official in any association that is closely related to the England Women's Hockey Association."
In 1927 the association was a founding member of the International Federation of Women's Hockey Associations (IFWHA) , which competed with the Fédération Internationale de Hockey (FIH) founded in 1924 , in which many of the continental European countries were represented, in which there was only one national hockey association. It was not until 1982 that the two world associations merged.
Under the umbrella of the All England Women's Hockey Association, the English national hockey team for women recorded the following successes.
European field hockey championship:
- 1991 1st place
- 1987 2nd place
Field Hockey World Championship:
- 1975 1st place
European indoor hockey championship:
- 1993 2nd place
- 1987 3rd place
- 1985 3rd place
Since 1951, the association held an annual friendly match at Wembley Stadium , which was regularly attended by over 50,000 spectators. In the first event, England beat Ireland 6-1. The record attendance dates back to 1978, when 65,000 visitors watched a 2-2 win against the USA.
The national English hockey associations for men, women and mixed hockey merged in 1996 to form the English Hockey Association (EHA). This went into bankruptcy in 2002. Today's England Hockey Association was founded on January 1, 2003 as the successor to the (EHA).