Field hockey at the 1948 Summer Olympics

The field hockey tournament at the 1948 Summer Olympics was the sixth edition of the field hockey event at the Summer Olympics.

Field hockey at the Games of the XIV Olympiad
Venues	4
Dates	31 July – 13 August 1948
No. of events	1
Competitors	187 from 13 nations
Teams	13
Medalists
India Great Britain Netherlands

In five Olympic hockey tournaments, there had only been two different winners, but Britain and India had never competed together at the Olympics. There was no question the UK would again be absent at their home Olympics, although there were some organizational difficulties. First of all, the four British nations were independently affiliated with the international federation FIH and were not very keen on cooperating. Also, there were no hockey grounds to train on, as these were used by cricketers during the summer. Still, they managed to put together a team, the first real British hockey team at the Olympics (the 1908 and 1920 champions had been composed entirely of English players). Their captain was the versatile Norman Borrett, a first-class cricketer and national squash champion who once qualified for Wimbledon but didn't have time to compete.

The fixtures were announced on 19 June 1948. Revised fixtures were announced on 28 July. Britain and India were seeded, along with Pakistan and the Netherlands. Pakistan had only separated from India the previous year and made their first Olympic appearance in London. One of the team members, Ali Iqtidar Shah Dara, had been on the golden Indian team of 1936. All four ranked teams made the semis, although the Brits were held to a goalless draw by Switzerland, and Pakistan crushed the Dutch 6–1 in their group match. The semi-finals were close, and British observers considered the Indians to be lucky to get away with a 2–1 win against the Dutch. With Britain beating Pakistan, the gold medal match would finally see India play the Britons. Completely focused on its defense, Britain was unable to keep up with the fast-paced Indians, and they lost it 4–0. The bronze went to the Netherlands, beating Pakistan 4–2 in a replay of the first 3rd place match, which had ended in a draw.

Participating nations

•  Afghanistan (14)
•  Argentina (12)
•  Austria (12)
•  Belgium (13)
•  Denmark (16)
•  France (14)
•  Great Britain (12) (H)
•  India (20)
•  Netherlands (12)
•  Pakistan (19)
•  Spain (14)
•  Switzerland (15)
•  United States (14)

(*) NOTE: There are only players counted, which participated in one game at least.
(H) Host

Squads

A total of 187(*) field hockey players from 13 nations competed at the London Games

Main article: Field hockey at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's team squads

Results

Group stage

The first of each group and also the second of Group C qualified for the Semi-finals.

Ticket for the 1948 Summer Olympics Hockey Match at the Empire Stadium Wembley

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	India	3	3	0	0	19	1	+18	6	Semi-finals
2	Argentina	3	1	1	1	5	12	−7	3
3	Austria	3	0	2	1	2	10	−8	2
4	Spain	3	0	1	2	3	6	−3	1

Source: FIH

31 July 1948 India 8–0 Austria Jansen  ?', ?', ?', ?' Singh Babu  ?', ?' Lal  ?' Rodrigues  ?' Report [1] John Lyons' Sports Ground Umpires: Erik Husted (DEN) René Lombaert (BEL)

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2 August 1948 18:00 Argentina 3–2 Spain Márquez  5', 15', 32' Report [2] Gasset  ?' Pratsmasó  ?' Polytechnic Sports Ground Umpires: Chanu (FRA) Basir Ali Sheikh (PAK)

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4 August 1948 18:00 India 9–1 Argentina Lal  ?' Jansen  ?', ?' Balbir Singh Sr.  ?', ?', ?', ?', ?', ?' Report [3] Márquez  ?' Guinness Sports Ground Umpires: Abraham van Donselaar (NED) Chanu (FRA)

4 August 1948 19:30 Austria 1–1 Spain Holzapfel  ?' Report Gasset  ?' Guinness Sports Ground Umpires: Rogge (NED) Oswald Nazareth (PAK)

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6 August 1948 18:00 Argentina 1–1 Austria Scally  55' Report Nowak  15' Polytechnic Sports Ground Umpires: Molhuysen (NED) Rogge (NED)

6 August 1948 19:30 India 2–0 Spain Trilochan Singh  10' Singh Babu  15' Report [4] Polytechnic Sports Ground Umpires: Abraham van Donselaar (NED) Willy Whitelaw (GBR)

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Great Britain (H)	3	2	1	0	19	0	+19	5	Semi-finals
2	Switzerland	3	1	2	0	4	2	+2	4
3	Afghanistan	3	1	1	1	3	9	−6	3
4	United States	3	0	0	3	1	16	−15	0

Source: FIH
(H) Hosts

31 July 1948 Great Britain 0–0 Switzerland

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3 August 1948 Afghanistan 2–0 United States

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5 August 1948 Great Britain 11–0 United States

5 August 1948 Afghanistan 1–1 Switzerland Mangal Report Grolimund  70' Lyons Sports Ground Umpires: Ali Shaikh (PAK) Husted (DEN)

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7 August 1948 Switzerland 3–1 United States

7 August 1948 Great Britain 8–0 Afghanistan Lyons Sports Ground Umpires: Basir Ali Shaikh (PAK) Rogge (NED)

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Pakistan	4	4	0	0	20	3	+17	8	Semi-finals
2	Netherlands	4	3	0	1	11	8	+3	6
3	Belgium	4	2	0	2	6	8	−2	4
4	France	4	0	1	3	4	9	−5	1
5	Denmark	4	0	1	3	4	17	−13	1

Source: FIH

31 July 1948 Denmark 2–2 France

31 July 1948 Netherlands 4–1 Belgium

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2 August 1948 Netherlands 4–1 Denmark

2 August 1948 Pakistan 2–1 Belgium Dara MA Khan Report H. Delaval  10'

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3 August 1948 Pakistan 9–0 Denmark Aziz  5', ?', ?', ?', ?', ?', ?', ?' Dara Report

3 August 1948 Netherlands 2–0 France

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5 August 1948 Belgium 2–1 Denmark

5 August 1948 Pakistan 3–1 France Malik  33' Dara  38', 53' Report Lacroix  ?' Lyons Sports Ground Umpires: Cowlishaw (GBR) and Allen (GBR)

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7 August 1948 Pakistan 6–1 Netherlands Dara  3', ?', ?', ?' Hamid  3' Razzaq Report Kruize

7 August 1948 Belgium 2–1 France

Finals

Final—India v. Great Britain at the Empire Stadium, Wembley, Thursday, August 12th. India scoring their third goal.

	Semi-finals				Gold medal match
	9 August
	India	2
					12 August
	Netherlands	1
					India	4
	9 August
					Great Britain	0
	Great Britain	2
	Pakistan	0
					Bronze medal match
					12 August / 13 August
					Netherlands (replay)	1 / 4
					Pakistan	1 / 1

Semi-finals

9 August 1948 Great Britain 2–0 Pakistan White  55' Adlard  60' Report Wembley Stadium Umpires: Jean Weymann (SUI) Erik Husted (DEN)

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9 August 1948 India 2–1 Netherlands Jansen  15' Babu  25' Report Bromberg  60' Wembley Stadium Umpires: Alec Allen (GBR) Reginald Gyles (GBR)

Bronze medal match

12 August 1948 16:30 Netherlands 1–1 (a.e.t.) Pakistan Kruize  37' Report Hamid  12' Wembley Stadium Umpires: Cowlishaw (GBR) Allen (GBR)

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13 August 1948 Netherlands 4–1 Pakistan Boerstra  32' Bromberg  38' Kruize Esser Report MA Khan  31' Lyons Sports Ground Umpires: Cowlishaw (GBR) Allen (GBR)

Gold medal match

12 August 1948 (1948-08-12) 18:00 Great Britain 0–4 India Report Singh Sr.  3', 55' Jansen  10' T. Singh  66' Empire Stadium Umpires: Rogge (NED) René Lombaert (BEL)

Final standings

team India

team Netherlands

Rank	Team
	India
	Great Britain
	Netherlands
4	Pakistan
5	Argentina
	Switzerland
	Belgium
8	Austria
	Afghanistan
	France
11	Spain
	United States
	Denmark

Medal summary

Gold	Silver	Bronze
India (IND) Leslie Claudius Keshav Dutt Walter D'Souza Lawrie Fernandes Ranganathan Francis Gerry Glackan Akhtar Hussain Patrick Jansen Amir Kumar Kishan Lal (c) Leo Pinto Jaswant Singh Rajput Latif-ur-Rehman Reginald Rodrigues Balbir Singh Sr. Randhir Singh Gentle Grahanandan Singh K. D. Singh (vc) Trilochan Singh Maxie Vaz	Great Britain (GBR) Robert Adlard Norman Borrett David Brodie Ronald Davis W O Greene William Griffiths Edgar Hitchman Frederick Lindsay William Lindsay John Peake Frank Reynolds George Sime (c) David Brynmor Thomas Michael Walford Peter Whitbread William White A H Young	Netherlands (NED) André Boerstra Henk Bouwman Piet Bromberg Harry Derckx Han Drijver Dick Esser Roepie Kruize Jenne Langhout Dick Loggere Ton Richter Eddy Tiel Wim van Heel

Note: The International Olympic Committee medal database shows also only these players as medalists. They all played at least one match during the tournament. The reserve players are not listed as medalists.

See also

• Gold (2018 film), about the Indian national hockey team at the 1948 Summer Olympics