Take your protein pills and put your helmet on....

This is the Son and Heir's old goalkeeper helmet.
He plays field hockey and is really quite good, he's 1st team keeper at his club, he's played for the county and the region and had trials for England.

As you can see this helmet has taken a few knocks in its time as has he, but he now has a new shiny silver one so this one lives in our garage.

The helmet is made by a firm called OBO based in New Zealand and is a kevlar composite similar to bullet proof armour. Just as well as balls being hit at him in training have been clocked at 98m.p.h.

It was cheaper to buy this helmet direct from the manufacturer, have it shipped from NZ and pay import duty on it than to buy it from the specialist Hockey suppliers in Cheshire!

On one occasion this helmet saved him from serious injury, a ball hit it straight in the cage at the front and he was almost knocked out. When he recovered he complained that his right eye hurt. We took him to hospital. After extensive tests the diagnosis was that the compression wave from the air being pushed by the ball had "squashed" his eyeball and it was internally bruised.He recovered over the next two weeks but I still shudder when I think what could have happened if he'd been an outfield player and been hit in the eye.


Still that's sport, there's always a risk, I've broken ribs,fingers, arms (including both arms at once!) , a metatarsal (before it was trendy) and a knee cap, dislocated a thumb and ruptured ligaments. His list isn't quite that impressive.....yet!

OBO gear all comes with a sticker of the firm's motto....."Goalkeepers are amazing people!"

I think that's true but then again I'm biased.