A HOCKEY player from Warwick raised his game for charity.
Stephen Tabb, who plays for the Old Silhillians club in nearby Solihull, umpired a match 5,000 metres up a mountain in the Himalayas in aid of Help For Heroes.
The match was between a school team from Lincoln and Hockey For Heroes – a team made up of serving personnel as well as ex-soldiers and those who have been injured or wounded – in the Annapurna range in Nepal.
The teams played a 50-minute match with Hockey For Heroes winning 6-3.
Stephen said: “Playing hockey at altitude was incredibly hard work.
“People played in periods of about three or four minutes before volunteering to be substituted and some even then tried to sleep on the side of the pitch.
“We had the rule of no running so that players did not exhaust themselves too quickly.
“It also did not help a huge amount that the playing area was a combination of rocks and boulders.
“Fitness levels did not really make that much of a difference, and altitude sickness can affect you whether you are unfit, or extremely fit.”
The teams raised £10,000 for Help For Heroes.
Stephen was keen to support the charity in honour of friends who had served in the forces and his uncle who was in the RAF.
Visit www.hockeyforheroes.org.uk for further details.
