{"id":18655,"date":"2025-12-26T20:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T20:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/staging\/?p=18655"},"modified":"2026-01-21T20:43:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:43:36","slug":"boxing-day-hockey-tradition-shines-again-for-marie-curie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/26\/boxing-day-hockey-tradition-shines-again-for-marie-curie\/","title":{"rendered":"Boxing Day Hockey Tradition Shines Again for Marie Curie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Our annual Boxing Day charity clash once again delivered exactly what everyone expected: <strong>chaos, craic, and charitable heroics<\/strong> in equal measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-image uagb-block-5fa1e471 wp-block-uagb-image--layout-default wp-block-uagb-image--effect-static wp-block-uagb-image--align-none\"><figure class=\"wp-block-uagb-image__figure\"><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/605720858_10236914756867113_8607619352070223538_n.jpg\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/605720858_10236914756867113_8607619352070223538_n-1024x581.jpg ,https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/605720858_10236914756867113_8607619352070223538_n.jpg 780w, https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/605720858_10236914756867113_8607619352070223538_n.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 150px\" src=\"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/605720858_10236914756867113_8607619352070223538_n-1024x581.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"uag-image-18659\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1161\" title=\"605720858_10236914756867113_8607619352070223538_n\" loading=\"lazy\" role=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>North Down Hockey Club and North Down Cricket Club renewed their festive rivalry at The Green, raising funds and spirits in support of <strong>Marie Curie<\/strong>, with the scoreboard reading a very generous <em>Marie Curie \u00a3650 \u2013 NDHC 2 \u2013 NDCC 2<\/em> by full time. The real victory, of course, belonged to the charity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The match featured a glorious assortment of men some who haven\u2019t lifted a hockey stick in quite awhile &#8211; along with socks so ancient they could probably claim veteran status themselves. A few first touches were questionable, some fitness levels were debatable, running was strictly optional, pints were strongly encouraged and enthusiasm was absolutely overflowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the previous day&#8217;s overeating both sides managed to produce moments of genuine quality, with supporters for both clubs cheering on from the sidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the final whistle, players and supporters retreated to the clubhouse for recovery pints, match analysis and the annual debate over who is fitter &#8211; hockey players or cricketers&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A brilliant day, a brilliant cause, and a brilliant reminder that sport, brings people together when it matters most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Same again next year?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our annual Boxing Day charity clash once again delivered exactly what everyone expected: chaos, craic, and charitable heroics in equal measure. North Down Hockey Club and North Down Cricket Club renewed their festive rivalry at The Green, raising funds and spirits in support of Marie Curie, with the scoreboard reading a very generous Marie Curie&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":18657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18655"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18664,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18655\/revisions\/18664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}