Field hockey at the 1956 Summer Olympics

The field hockey tournament at the 1956 Summer Olympics was contested from November 23 to December 6, with twelve participating teams. Only men competed in field hockey at these Games. India won the gold medal for the sixth successive Games, not allowing a single goal against in the entire tournament. Pakistan won the silver medal, and Germany won the bronze.

Participating nations

Twelve teams were seeded and placed into one of three preliminary groups of four teams each. With the unbalanced seeding, the top two teams in Group C advanced to the semi-finals, but only the top team in both Groups A and B advanced.

Group A  India  Singapore  Afghanistan  United States

Group B  Great Britain  Australia  Malaya  Kenya

Group C  Pakistan  Germany  Belgium  New Zealand

Preliminary round

Group A

November 26, 11:30 Singapore  6–1 (3–1)  United States

November 26, 14:30 India  14–0 (3–0)  Afghanistan

November 28, 11:30 Singapore  5–0 (4–0)  Afghanistan

November 28, 14:30 India  16–0 (6–0)  United States

November 30, 11:30 India  6–0 (3–0)  Singapore

November 30, 14:30 Afghanistan  5–1 (2–1)  United States

Group standings

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
India	3	3	0	0	36	0	6
Singapore	3	2	0	1	11	7	4
Afghanistan	3	1	0	2	5	20	2
United States	3	0	0	3	2	27	0

• India advanced to the semi-finals.

Group B

November 23, 11:30 Great Britain  2–2 (1–1)  Malaya

November 23, 14:30 Australia  2–0 (1–0)  Kenya

November 24, 16:00 Great Britain  1–1 (1–1)  Kenya

November 26, 16:00 Australia  3–2 (2–1)  Malaya

November 28, 16:00 Malaya  1–1 (0–1)  Kenya

November 30, 16:00 Great Britain  2–1 (1–0)  Australia

Group standings

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
Great Britain	3	1	2	0	5	4	4
Australia	3	2	0	1	6	4	4
Malaya	3	0	2	1	5	6	2
Kenya	3	0	2	1	2	4	2

• Great Britain and Australia played an additional tie-breaker match to determine the group winner.

December 1, 14:00 Great Britain  1–0 (0–0)  Australia

• Great Britain advanced to the semi-finals.

Group C

November 23, 16:00 Pakistan  2–0 (1–0)  Belgium

November 24, 14:30 Germany  5–4 (3–3)  New Zealand

November 27, 14:30 Pakistan  5–1 (2–0)  New Zealand

November 27, 16:00 Germany  0–0 (0–0)  Belgium

November 29, 14:30 Pakistan  0–0 (0–0)  Germany

November 29, 16:00 New Zealand  3–0 (1–0)  Belgium

Group standings

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
Pakistan	3	2	1	0	7	1	5
Germany	3	1	2	0	5	4	4
New Zealand	3	1	0	2	8	10	2
Belgium	3	0	1	2	0	5	1

• Pakistan and Germany advanced to the semi-finals.

Playoffs

	Semi-finals				Final
	December 3
	India	1
	Germany	0
					December 6
					India	1
					Pakistan	0
					Third place
	December 3			December 6
	Pakistan	3		Germany	3
	Great Britain	2			Great Britain	1

Semi-finals

December 3, 14:30 India  1–0 (0–0)  Germany

December 3, 16:00 Pakistan  3–2 (3–1)  Great Britain

Bronze medal match

December 6, 14:30 Germany  3–1 (2–1)  Great Britain

Gold medal match

6 December 1956 India  1 - 0  Pakistan Gentle  38' Report Umpires: M. G. Cowlinshaw (GBR) J. McDowell (AUS)

Medalists

Gold

India

Leslie Claudius Ranganathan Francis Haripal Kaushik Amir Kumar Raghbir Lal Shankar Lakshman

Govind Perumal Amit Singh Bakshi Raghbir Singh Bhola Balbir Singh Dosanjh Hardyal Singh Garchey Randhir Singh Gentle

Balkishan Singh Grewal Gurdev Singh Kullar Udham Singh Kullar Bakshish Singh Charles Stephen

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Silver

Pakistan

Abdul Rashid Raja Muhammad Amin Akhtar Hussain Munir Dar Ghulam Rasul

Anwar Khan Habib Ali Kiddie Latif-ur-Rehman Hussain Manzoor

Ullah Mutti Ahmad Nasir Noor Alam

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Bronze

Germany

Günther Brennecke Hugo Budinger Werner Delmes Hugo Dollheiser

Eberhard Ferstl Alfred Lücker Helmut Nonn Wolfgang Nonn

Heinz Radzikowski Werner Rosenbaum Günther Ullerich

References

• The Official Report of the Organizing Committee for the Games of the XVI Olympiad Melbourne 1956 (PDF). Melbourne, Australia: W.M. Houston, Government Printer. 1958. pp. 500–511. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
• "Olympic Medal Winners". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 2008-01-28.