THE Great Britain Olympic teams from Seoul and Barcelona made a triumphant return at the weekend.

Both teams reformed to rekindle past glories in reunion matches at Brooklands Manchester University Hockey Club.

The reunion event also included a dinner in the evening, at which celebrated television commentator Barry Davies was guest of honour.

Davies nearly didn't make it after rupturing his Achilles tendon playing tennis the week before.

But he bravely arrived on crutches to delight the dinner audience with a reprise of his famous commentary line from Seoul after Imran Sherwani had scored England's third goal against Germany in the final.

With the German defence split wide open he said: "Where were the Germans, but frankly who cares?"

The men who won gold at the 1988 Olympics in South Korea after beating both Australia and Germany won 5-4 against a lively England Seniors side.

The England vets made a great start with two goals from Andy Batchelor and the striker went on to score all his side's four goals.

But Martyn Grimley, the Brooklands player who organised the reunion, interrupted Batchelor's flow to put the Olympians back in the game with a successful penalty corner flick.

Sean Kerly, the scoring star in Seoul with a semi-final hat-trick against the Australians, scored twice and laid on one for Imran Sherwani before Andy Batchelor levelled the score at 4-4 with six minutes to play.

Kulbir Bhaura hit the winner for the Great Britain team who were all at Brooklands bar Jon Potter who works and lives in America now.

The Great Britain girls who took bronze in 1992 in Spain beat the England Lady Masters 3-2 when Sue Fraser completed a fine hat-trick in the 60th minute.

Linda Webb and Pat Wells were the scorers for an England team captained by Chris Rowland-Jones.

The GB girls also had a good turn-out, except for their star striker Jane Sixsmith, who had a good excuse with a baby due on match day.

Brooklands chairman George Buchan said: “Initially we just wanted to mark the 20th anniversary of Martyn Grimley winning a gold medal but the idea mushroomed into a full-scale reunion weekend with a dinner and then matches.

“We tried our best to do them proud and with excellent sponsorship from Lombard Finance and Adidas we were able to honour their fantastic achievements in a proper way.”