Last week, I went to my first-ever hockey match. And since this was in North America, the surface was ice and not Astroturf or grass. The North Americans have no conception of field hockey, and who can blame them? In the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, the US field hockey team was beaten 24-1 by the Indians (sigh, those were the glory days, when K.P.S. Gill had not been born). Ever since then, hockey has meant ice hockey in that part of the world.

To go to a hockey match in North America is to participate in the ultimate North American cultural experience, as is going to a cricket match in the Indian sub-continent. The match took place in Vancouver last week, in a cosy three-rink indoor stadium. It was not exactly premier division stuff: the league in question is called the duffers’ league, and the team I was supporting called itself the Wookies (as a tribute to Chewbacca from Star Wars). Accordingly, the team jersey had a furry ‘W’ sewed on its front.

During our drive to the stadium in pelting, unseasonable rain, I sought to acquaint myself with the basics of the game. Each team can have five players on the rink at any point of time, but substitutions take place almost every other minute. Given the furious pace of the game, players have to come on and off frequently, and these happen on the ‘fly’ or without the game stopping. I found this aspect of the game most intriguing, for players would frequently come off in pairs, and with almost telepathic understanding. In other respects, it was quite similar to five-a-side football with one notable exception: the area behind the goalpost is also considered as part of the playing arena.

But surely the most fascinating aspect of the game was the skating skills of the players. You can’t play ice hockey if you don’t skate well, and defenders need to be able to skate backwards. In top-flight games, the puck moves about at breathtaking speeds, as players swoop and pounce with an almost animal grace. Reaction time is minimal, and players crash into each other with alarming regularity. Heavily padded equipment is a must, with the goalie swathed in what looks like medieval body armour. I wondered how he could possibly move but was assured that all the protective gear was ridiculously light.

As I watched the hour-long game (divided into three 20-minute periods) I learnt new things almost every minute: how fouls were punished, how the puck could be stopped with both hand and foot, and how leading hockey players did not wash or apply deodorant so that the opposition players would be repelled by the stench.

And then wondered ruefully that this was one sport which I would probably never play: it is hard to start learning to skate at 40.

The author teaches English at Jadavpur University