DINNINGTON went out on a high on Saturday when they won their last ever game of hockey.

The club has folded after 29 years of existence and a number of former players from throughout the club's history pulled on the jersey one last time and were part of a 4-2 victory.

Player of the year and influential forward Tom Oldale explained that the time was right for the club to come to an end after struggling to put out a competitive side this season.

He told the Guardian: "It needed doing, in fact it came a little too late. We could have done with folding after last season but we carried on and got through the year at least."

"It was nice to go out with a win, everyone was happy with that and for once there was no arguing on the pitch and we don't finish bottom of the league now, we'll finish second bottom."

The decision to fold the club was taken at Christmas with the average age of the side being over 40 and a number of squad members being unavailable for match days.

Oldale, who has been involved with the club since 1990, said it was an emotional end to the club's history.

He said: "It was quite emotional for a lot of the players. Our goalkeeper John Radford is the longest serving and he's been playing, umpiring and then playing again for 25 years."

With only eight or nine players able to turn out for some away games this season, Dinnington have been unable to compete with the better teams in Yorkshire One but Oldale is proud of the club's performance in recent years.

"We went from Division Six to Division One in five successive years and it was nice to beat Rotherham and take them down with us this year, with them being our rivals."

"The highlights for me were the promotions and three league titles under captain David Hill."

The lack of schoolboy hockey in the area is one of the contributing factors to the downfall of Dinnington Hockey Club, according to Oldale.

"I teach at Wales High School and there is no men's hockey played there, or at any of the area's schools, so there are no youth coming through and at 31 I was one of the youngest on the team."

"I think one or two players were a little out of their depth in Division One because of the age and fitness factors, but we still didn't finish bottom," he added.

Dinnington's last ever game was at home to Bradford and with the luxury of 16 players available for selection, the club went out with a victory.

They started well in poor conditions and were 1-0 after 10 minutes when Oldale and Tim Lloyd combined to leave top scorer Mark Vaughan with the task of slamming the ball home.

Soon after it was two when Oldale fired in.

Dinnington were playing with the relaxed manner of a team who knew there was no pressure and scored their third after good work by Martin Edwards gave Vaughan the chance to score his second of the game.