AGED 66 Bill Warrender has the smile of a young lad who has just opened a Christmas present except that the object of his delight is a silver medal won playing for England in the World Great Grand Masters Hockey Tournament in Athens.

And the smile only takes on a wistful tinge when he explains how close the team came to collecting gold in the final of hockey's first-ever World Cup for hockey veterans aged 65 and over, which took place in the wake of the Olympics in the Greek capital.

Having fought their way through to the final from the group stage, England faced their old rivals Germany in a classic sporting showdown with a crowd of 400 creating a fervent atmosphere.

England had the firepower on paper with 23 goals for and only two against compared to Germany's 13 for and one against, but statistics meant nothing in the final.

Nothing separated the two sides up to full time and a period of "golden goal" extra time also failed to resolve the situation, forcing a penalty shoot-out to be taken in blocks of five.

Twice Bill held his nerve fired in successful penalties as the fifth taker to keep the team in with a chance of gold and there was the heartache to see a tame shot trickle under the England goalkeeper's stick when a save would have clinched the verdict.

Then in the third block, two of the England penalty-takers missed Bill went on and scored to keep his 100 per cent record, but Germany had won 12-10.

"We knew we had played the best hockey in the final, but the Germans are always difficult to score against and they just managed to keep us out and take it to penalties, where anything can happen," said Bill, a wily left winger with a taste for scoring goals.

"There was such a tiny difference at the end between winning silver and gold, but I can't complain and it's been the high point of my time in the sport.

"Playing for England is everybody's dream and to reach a World Cup final well it's pure magic."

Bill, who lives with his wife Gill in Levens, is one of the top veteran players in the country.

A former captain of the Netherfield club (now renamed Kendal), he plays locally with Morecambe, where he skippers a largely youthful fourth team in between travelling up and down the country representing England's veterans known as the XLs.

"My aim is to keep going and have another crack at the next World Cup in two years' time.

"It's opened up opportunities to see the world I would otherwise never have had."