Ladies' Hockey
Instonians Ladies' Hockey is somewhat unusual in that the club is associated with a boys' school. However, the ladies' hockey section was the second part of the club to be formed in 1921. Membership was initially made up from wives, sisters, daughters and girlfriends of Inst old boys and staff.
The ladies' hockey club was one of the most successful club sides in Ulster over a period from 1930 until the mid-1960s. They were winners of the Ulster Shield on ten occasions and won the Irish Senior Cup in 1955. The dawning of the 1970s saw a gradual decline in playing standards, and eventually Senior League status was lost.
They took up a nomadic existence moving from ground to ground over the past twenty years. However 2006 saw Instonians Ladies' Hockey Club renew its connection with the parent club with the opening of a new water-based artificial turf pitch at the Shaw's Bridge Sports Complex.
Instonians Ladies currently play in Section Four of the Senior League (following the restructuring of the ladies leagues in 2007 removing Qualifying and Intermediate Sections) of the Ulster Women's Hockey Union.
The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today is Queen's University, the institution pioneered Belfast's first programme of collegiate education. Locally referred to as Inst, the modern school educates boys from ages 11 to 18. It is one of the eight Northern Irish schools represented on the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school occupies an 18-acre site in the centre of the city on which its first buildings were erected.
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Watching and playing sports is an important part of culture in Belfast, Northern Ireland where almost six out of ten (59%) of the adult population regularly participate in one or more sports. Belfast has several notable sports teams playing a diverse variety of sports including football, rugby, traditional Irish Gaelic games, and North American sports such as American football and ice hockey (at the SSE Arena where the multiple time Elite Ice Hockey League champion Belfast Giants are based. The Belfast Marathon is run annually on May Day, and attracted 14,300 participants in 2007. Cycling, triathlon and athletics are also popular as both participation and spectator sports, with the first two stages of the 2014 Giro d'Italia starting from Belfast City Centre, and the annual high profile Belfast International Cross Country event being held in the grounds of Stormont Castle every year until 2009. The Stormont Estate is also one of the four home grounds for the Ireland cricket team, alongside Bready, Malahide and Clontarf, and also hosts the Northern Cricket Union provincial teams.
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The North of Ireland Cricket Club (often referred to simply as North or by the abbreviation N.I.C.C. was a cricket club in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
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Mark Gleghorne is a field hockey player from Northern Ireland who has represented Ireland, England and Great Britain at international level. He represented Great Britain at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Gleghorne was a member of the England teams that won the bronze medals at the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games and at the 2017 Men's EuroHockey Nations Championship. He also represented England at the 2014 and 2018 Men's Hockey World Cups. At club level, Gleghorne was a member of the Instonians team that won the Irish Senior Cup in both 2002 and 2004. He was also a member of the Punjab Warriors team that won the 2016 Hockey India League title. Gleghorne is a member of a family of field hockey internationals. His younger brother, Paul, is an Ireland international. Two of his aunts, Margaret Gleghorne and Jackie McWilliams, were also Ireland and Great Britain women's internationals.
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