World Sikh News is happy to have a hockey writer on board. This first person piece by Diljit Singh Bahra, fondly known as Dil Bahra, is a vivid account of his hockey tournament in life –on and off the field. He is chronicling the contribution of Sikh players, particularly hockey players in a passionate and painstaking manner and his latest website www.hockeyonstamps.com is an example of his dedication to the game. Released on the web only last week, World Sikh News is glad to premiere it in World Sikh News.
Hockey is my first love. My love for the game goes back to the fifties when I played hockey for my school team, the Menegai High School, Nakuru in Kenya and for the Nakuru Rangers, a club run by Harvinder Singh Marwa, who was a Kenyan International at the time and went on to represent Kenya at the 1968 Mexico City and Munich Olympic Games.
I continued my association with hockey even in the United Kingdom when I migrated in the late sixties. After my active work on the field, I continued off the field as an administrator and guide. In April 2006 I was invited to be a panelist to select the "Top 10 Sardars of Hockey" in New Delhi.
In January 2005, I was invited to be a member of Steering Group for Vaisakhi celebrations in London. I was given the task of identifying all Sikh Olympians living in the UK to be showcased to celebrate the achievements of Sikh Olympians and support London's bid to host the 2012 Olympics.
As a result of my intensive research, with assistance from Patrick Rowley, Bill Colwill OBE and Peter Luck of Hockey Writers' Club, I was able to compile a list of all Sikh Olympians and establish that most of the Sikh Olympians living in the UK were hockey players though there were also three wrestlers and a weightlifter.
This led to the website on Sikh Hockey Olympians which contains profiles of Sikh hockey players from all over the world.
The exploration was not to end there. During the course of the research on Sikh Olympians, even though I was not a keen stamp collector, I came across a number of postage stamps which had hockey on them and some which had Sikh hockey players on them.
With support from my brother Kul Bahra, who has immense philatelic knowledge I was able to put together the collection on this new website, www.hockeyonstamps.com.
Three years later, from 2005 to the present, I dribbled past the records to become one of the biggest stamp collectors on hockey and now I have the pleasure to share with those who are keen to know more about the progress of the game through postage stamps.
The biggest collection to date belongs to Mike Smith and David Wareham of England, who have over 400 hockey stamps.
Their impressive collection has mint stamps, used stamps, imperforate stamps, overprint stamps, sets of stamps, miniature sheets and first day covers.
I have also had the opportunity of seeing Ernie Wall\'s collection in Scotland.
Perhaps the only book on hockey stamps is written by a Polish author, Antoni Karwacki of Poland, entitled, \"HOKEJ NA TRAWIE\". I often communicate with him and he has added several stamps and Postcards from Poland to my collection.
Just as one thing leads to the other, I have no hesitation in thinking that keen readers would enjoy the stamp collection and also provide more details should they come across any.
Hockey on Stamps:
Japan was the 1st country to issue a hockey stamp in 1951.
Over a 100 countries have issued hockey stamps.
7 hockey stamps feature Sikh Hockey Players.
The countries which have featured Sikh players on hockey stamps so far are India (two times), the Dominque Republique, Rwanda (two times), Scotland and Kenya
The author was born and brought up in Maji Mazuri, Kenya. After migration to England, he served in the British army and played hockey for the Army and army units. Subsequently he joined the London Metropolitan Police from which he retired after 32 years of service, during which time he was involved with hockey as a player, coach, team manager, umpire, liaison officer and administrator. He was the team manager of the British Police Hockey team for fifteen years. He has traveled world-wide and has been associated in many official capacities with the International Hockey Federation. He is presently the Honorary Secretary of the Hockey Writers' Club, a world wide organization with members in over 30 countries. He is also the co-coordinator of the 'Hockey Overseer Steering Group' which oversees the media facilities at International hockey tournaments throughout the world. He may be contacted at dilbahra@aol.com.
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