Welcome to the Fieldhockey.com Archives

Daily Hockey news updated @ 10:00 GMT

News for 04 December 2019

All the news for Wednesday 4 December 2019


3 Nations Invitational Tournament - Canberra (AUS) - Day 2
Under 21 Women's Outdoor Canberra (AUS)

4 Dec 2019     NZL v IND     0 - 2

Pool standings

Rank Team Played Wins Draws Losses Goals For Goals Against Goal Difference Points
1 India 1 1 0 0 2 0 2 3
2 New Zealand 2 1 0 1 3 3 0 3
3 Australia 1 0 0 1 1 3 -2 0

FIH Match Centre



New Zealand U21 Women start their Tri-Series off with convincing win over Australia



The New Zealand U21 Women’s side began their Australia Tri-Series in the best possible way with a comprehensive 3-1 win over the Australian side. Olivia Shannon put the Kiwis in front early on in the match with a 3rd-minute goal, Hope Ralph then extended the lead with two late goals to ensure the New Zealand side would start the series off in the best possible way.

The New Zealand side started the match looking confident and stringing together some great passes, they were rewarded in the 3rd minute of the game when Olivia Shannon found some space in the circle and rolled around the Australia defender before putting a shot wide of the Australian goalkeeper. New Zealand came close to doubling the lead through a high Kaitlin Cotter drag flick, however, the opposition goalkeeper was able to get across to the shot and deny the Kiwis.

Australia after being stunned in the first half came out firing in the second and forced the New Zealand side to absorb some significant pressure, the Kiwis kept fighting and managed to construct some great attack as the second half wore on. Hope Ralph found herself on the end of a rebound off a New Zealand penalty corner which she slotted home to take the lead to 2-0. The second goal from the Kiwis seemed to jolt the Australian team to life as they began to get shot after shot on the New Zealand team, eventually, the pressure resulted in Australia finding their first goal of the match off a penalty corner deflection. The New Zealand side stayed composed as Hope Ralph would go on to score her second of the match off a penalty corner deflection which sailed into the back of the net.

The New Zealand goalkeepers Kelly Carline and Saascha Marsters were outstanding in the first match as they were called on to keep a strong finishing Australia side at bay.

New Zealand Coach Katie Glynn commented “We were really happy with the first up effort from the girls. We now have a short turn around and a lot more we can put out on the pitch for the rest of the series. The ream will now review, recover and look to progress in their next match against India”.

New Zealand will return to the turf for their second match today as they take on India.

New Zealand 3 (Olivia Shannon 3 min, Hope Ralph 47, 52 min)
Australia 1 (Aisling Utri 50 min)

Hockey New Zealand Media release



Indian junior women’s team to open campaign against NZ

India will play Australia on December 5, New Zealand on December 7 and Australia again on December 8 in the Three-Nation tournament.


The Indian junior women’s team will participate in the Three-nation tournament in Australia. Hockey India

The Indian junior women’s hockey team will look to begin its campaign on a positive note against New Zealand in its opening match of the Three-Nation tournament here on Wednesday.

Besides India and New Zealand, the tournament will also feature hosts Australia.

For the Baljeet Saini-coached Indian team, the tournament is an opportunity to gain the much-needed exposure of playing two top teams of the world.

The team is scheduled to take part in the AHF Women’s Junior Asia Cup next year to be held in Japan, and Saini is expecting the side to make the most out of the tournament.

“Our target in the next year is to perform well at the AHF Women’s Junior Asia Cup which will take place in 2020. This group of players has been training with us for a fair amount of time now, and to have the opportunity of playing in Australia against two top teams is a great way to prepare for the upcoming year,” said Saini.

“We are also hoping that these four matches will give us a good idea of how the team is shaping up in terms of dealing with different scenarios that you face during a match.

“We have a very talented bunch of players, some of which have even represented the senior team recently, and I am really looking forward to our first match against New Zealand,” he added.

The Indian team has not played New Zealand recently, and the coach will be keeping a close eye on Tuesday’s Australia-New Zealand fixture to get a fair idea of their opponents.

“We have not come across New Zealand in any tournaments that we have participated in the past 3-4 years. Therefore, I will be watching the opening match between Australia and New Zealand and will analyse their style of play. I am expecting a good run of four matches against these two sides. It will be a good test,” Saini said.

India will play Australia on December 5, New Zealand on December 7 and Australia again on December 8.

Sportstar



U-21 USMNT Clinches Series Over Canada, U-16 & U-18 USMNT Make Great Strides


Images Courtesy of Sandeep Kaur, Alan Scally & Jeff Tregembo

MOORPARK, Calif. - December 3, 2019 - Last weekend, the Junior U.S. Men's National Training Squads wrapped up their first training camp and test matches following the newly named squad announcement in October. While the U-21 USMNT clinched their four-game series against Canada, both the U-16 & U-18 USMNT made great strides in their games in this year-end training.

Taking place in Moorpark, Calif., the training camp ran from Sunday, November 24 to Thursday, November 28, with two-games a day taking place on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. The USMNT staff selected the competing roster each game day based on athletes’ performance at the training camp. Teams were fielded from athletes in the U-16/U-18 and U-21 divisions.

The U-18 USMNT played the first game of the series on Sunday and got off to a bumpy start, falling 1-5. When this squad took the field for their second game, they closed the differential and finished a hard fought contest, falling 0-1 to Canada.

The young U-16 USMNT played the same Canada team as the U-18 squad and lost the first match 1-11. However, their second match played on a cold and rainy day was a nail-biter, even taking the lead several times but they ultimately fell 3-4.

The U-21 USMNT had an impressive showing over their four games, successfully winning the series over a tough Canada opponent. They tied the first game, 1-1, and won the second, 3-1, lost the third, 1-2, and won the final match, 3-2. The last game saw several U-18 USMNT athletes play up to assist with fielding a full roster as some athletes had early departures.

 “A great finish of the year for the junior program," said Rutger Wiese, Junior USMNT Head Coach, regarding the training camp week. "Winning both series this year versus Chile and Canada, gives the U-21 a lot of positive energy heading into 2020. I look forward to seeing the guys back in January to take the next steps in their development.”

“It was also great to see that both our younger squads were able to quickly adjust to the level during the week," continued Wiese. "They both competed for every inch and the staff can’t wait to get to work with these young men in 2020."

A special thank you goes to the U.S. Men’s Field Hockey Booster Club and Elaine Harris who hosted a Thanksgiving meal for both teams on Tuesday, November 26. A meal was provided for all athletes, coaches, staff and parents of the five teams. Another thank you to the Field Hockey Federation for providing live stream coverage.

For more information regarding the Junior USMNT vs. Canada series including the schedule, results, rosters and more, check out the official event page by clicking here.

USFHA media release



FIH foil Indonesia hockey team's 'sneak attack'


The Malaysian women, bronze medallists two years ago, will start their campaign against the Philippines today. NSTP/MOHD YUSNI ARIFFIN

THE Indonesian indoor hockey team made a desperate dash to play in the Sea Games, but their plans flew out the window following a ‘no’ from the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) yesterday.

Indonesia did not register to play in the Games because of an internal fight between two associations, one of which is not recognised by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).

However, the unrecognised Field Hockey Indonesia body tried to sneak in via the backdoor, and even had the audacity to fly down to Subic, to ‘try their luck’.

FIH only recognise the Indonesian Hockey Association, who are their member.

AHF CEO Datuk Tayyab Ikram was firm on the matter.

‘Even though Indonesia (men and women) made the trip to Subic, they will not be allowed to play as the FIH are very strict on these matters,’ Tayyab said.

‘We (AHF) had done the fixtures much earlier, and since Indonesia did not submit their entry by the closing date, they can’t play.’

In the men’s event, Malaysia are favourites to defend their KL 2017 gold, while the women look set to play in the final against Thailand.

Indonesia were silver medallists in the men and women’s events when the sport made its debut at the 2017 KL Games.

Indonesia were strong contenders for the Philippines Sea Games gold as they had gone on a Europe Tour to prepare.

Yesterday morning, the Indonesian team met Malaysia coach K. Dharmaraj during breakfast at their hotel, and were still confident that they will be allowed to play.

The Malaysian men’s team will open accounts against Myanmar on Thursday followed by Singapore, Thailand and Phillipines.

The Malaysian women, bronze medallists two years ago, will start their campaign against the Philippines today.

New Straits Times



SPAR South Africa head into the unknown against Ireland



With the fantastic support of SPAR, the South African Indoor Hockey Women have had a superb programme that has seen them grow from strength to strength over the past five or six years. The adventure continues this week as the hosts will take on Ireland for the first time on the indoor courts.

Ireland made waves last year when they made the final of the Outdoor FIH Hockey World Cup performing well outside their expectations. Their indoor journey though is only about to start again. The six-match series against the hosts in Durban and Cape Town will be the first Irish side to play International Indoor Hockey since 1990, nearly 30 years ago. They have also joined in the third tier of the EuroHockey Indoor Championships which take place in Slovakia in late January.

The Irish side selected features none of the team that qualified for the Olympics, but Naomi Carroll will be familiar with the Green of Ireland having last played outdoor for the country in 2018. The Irish side that plays the first test at Danville Park Girls High School will be co-led by Cloe Brown and Orla Fox, while every single player will be making their International Indoor Hockey debuts.

The South Africans are on a very different part of their journey and feature the two most capped African Indoor Hockey players in history in Jessica O’Connor and Cindy Hack. The team also includes Amy Greaves and Kara Botes who have amassed more than 50 caps for their country while the junior side of the team sees Kayla de Waal looking to add to her six caps won against Switzerland.

With the series so close to the back of the successful 4-0 series victory against the Swiss, there is no doubt that the South Africans head into this series as the favourites. And with the only change being the availability of Edith Molikoe back and Celia Evans unavailable, coach Lennie Botha will be looking for more of the same.

These six tests will be the last in a year where the South African record is incredibly impressive. In the calendar year so far, they have played 22 test matches winning 16 and losing only 3. They are currently on a 14-match unbeaten run that started with a swashbuckling 7-0 victory over Czech Republic.

The opening two games of the series will be streamed live by Shoot South Africa through the My Youth Hockey Facebook Page, with the details of the streaming for the other games to be shared in the build-up.

Ireland women’s indoor squad - Caroline Adams (Ards), Sophie Barnwell (Muckross), Amy Benson (Ards), Chloe Brown (East Grinstead), Naomi Carroll (Catholic Institute), Orla Fox (Railway Union), Erin Getty (Queen’s University), Tori Hastings (Queen’s University), Kate McKenna (Railway Union), Jessica McMaster (Queen’s University), Roisin O’Brien (Glenanne), Orla Patton (UCD), Millie Regan (East Grinstead), Niamh Small (Loreto)

SPAR South Africa Womens Indoor Squad – Amy Greaves (KZN Inland), Cheree Greyvenstein (SPAR KZN Raiders), Cindy Hack (SPAR KZN Raiders), Edith Molikoe (KZN Inland), Eloise Walters (KZN Inland), Jamie Southgate (Western Province), Jessica Lardant (SPAR KZN Raiders), Jessica O’Connor (SPAR KZN Raiders), Kara Botes (Southern Gauteng), Kayla de Waal (Western Province), Robyn Johnson (Southern Gauteng), Zimi Shange (SPAR KZN Raiders)

SPAR Test Series

Durban – Danville Park Girls High School
First Test - Wednesday 4 December – 18:00
Second Test – Thursday 5 December – 18:00

Cape Town – Bellville Velodrome
Third Test – Saturday 7 December – 19:00
Fourth Test – Sunday 8 December – 19:00
Fifth Test – Tuesday 10 December – 09:30
Sixth Test – Tuesday 10 December – 19:00

SA Hockey Association media release



Sihle Ntuli appointed SA U21 Men’s Coach



The South African Hockey Association have today announced Sihle Ntuli as the new head coach of the SA Under 21 Hockey Men, succeeding previous incumbent Neville Rothman, who has stepped down. The appointment will be for the period up to and including the 2021 FIH Junior Hockey World Cup.

Sihle is no stranger to the national set up in South Africa as he was the head coach of the SA U18’s at the African Youth Games and is one of the assistant coaches of the current senior men’s structure. In his time with the national team the men were victorious at the African Hockey Road to Tokyo as well as earning a silver medal at the FIH Hockey Series Final in Bhubaneswar. He was also previously the SA U16 Head Coach and has been one of the SA Indoor selectors for the past three years.

It was while he was at Kearsney College that he rose to prominence keeping the team in the top 10 of the school boy rankings and earning a crack with the KZN Raiders outdoor side. There he led the team to 5th and 3rd before a double success winning in 2017 and 2018. He also has the honour of leading the Drakensberg Dragons to three consecutive finals winning the SA Premier Hockey League in both 2018 and 2019.

This year saw him move to Pretoria where he has taken charge of the Tuks Mens First team. There are very few that doubt he will bring success with him to the role. When Rothmann stepped down, the decision was a unanimous one for the High-Performance committee of SA Hockey.

Speaking about the role, Sihle had the following to share:

“I am really excited by the squad that the previous coaching team has put together. The squad is filled with players that I worked with at the SA U16 level and being with them again feels like we have come full circle. I truly believe the players are not getting the rewards that their ability deserves and with that in mind a big focus for me and my team will be to raise the confidence into the next stage of our programme.

From a personal point of view, I would like to thank the South African Hockey Association for having the confidence in me to do the job. I am both honoured and humbled by this opportunity and I look forward to making the country proud!”

SA Hockey wishes Sihle success for his new role!

SA Hockey Association media release



For Ladies Hockey Coach Brian Scully, This Season May Come Down to Fine Margins

Brian Scully talks about his coaching philosophy and the future of DULHC.

Barry Murphy


Adrian Boehm/Hook Hockey

Dublin University Ladies Hockey Club (DULHC) head coach Brian Scully is a man of many words, but his philosophy can be condensed to just a few: “Make the players better. It is the only thing that matters.”

He goes on: “Tactics are secondary. If you have better players you don’t need complicated tactics, so every day is about making the players that little bit better.”

But if Scully’s coaching mantra can be summarised to a few sentences, this is not the case when it comes to other topics of conversation – he is bursting with eagerness to talk about hockey, small details and fine margins.

A sports fanatic, Scully admits that he watches as much as he can without jeopardising his marriage, taking nuggets of wisdom wherever they appear: “You try and take different things from different sports, a bit from cycling, a bit from soccer, GAA and American football and cherry pick a few ideas or a few slogans.” One such catchphrase he is drawn to is New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick’s motto, “Do Your Job” (occasionally there is an expletive between “your” and “job”).

“Do your job. If you are a left back and you have three roles, do them. Full stop. If you are the centre back and have five roles, do them. That’s it. Just do your job. It is so simple but extraordinarily powerful.”

Trinity returned to the top of the Leinster League Division 1 with a 6-1 win over Rathgar on Wednesday night, but two recent losses against Corinthians and a loss to Banbridge in the Irish Senior Cup have given Scully and his squad cause for some self-appraisal: “This year, unlike the previous years that I’ve been involved with the girls, we’ve hit a bit of a speed bump. We’ve had a few performances and a few results that we don’t really think reflect where we would like to be.”

“We’re still winning games but we’ve just had a couple of bad results and we’ve come to the conclusion that they are not in isolation”, he says.

According to Scully, the players have reacted well to a look in the mirror: “Everybody is very honest. At the level we train at and the level we play at, nobody is there not to win matches. We are quite aware of the level of the teams we’re playing against and we don’t necessarily mind getting beaten if we feel that the opposition are doing things that we couldn’t live with.”

“But we feel that there have been a few games where we haven’t played to our standards and that has costs us a result in games – that’s the line at which we say something needs to change.”

One such change is instilling a “hardness” in the squad. He cites a recent 3-1 win over Clontarf, an older and more physical side who gave Trinity a different type of challenge on the field: “I don’t mean this in a negative sense – but they were more cynical in their tackling and every team is entitled to do that and we found that game to be quite frustrating. And that’s a game and experience that we need to look at and say: ‘Hang on a second, can we not learn something from the tactics that these guys are employing?’”

Having gone unbeaten in the league last season, Scully admits that there is now a “target on the back” of DULHC: “Teams are particularly motivated to play against us – you can see their body language. When Corinthians beat us, they were cheered off the pitch by their spectators and they were celebrating at full-time. They don’t look at it as three points, they look at it as ‘we’ve managed to beat Trinity’.”

Trinity’s last two seasons have ended in cruel heartbreak. In 2018, they lost a relegation playoff that saw them drop back into the second tier of the EYHL. Last April, they were defeated by Catholic Institute in a promotion playoff, denying them the chance to return to the top flight. Both games were decided by the finest of margins.

Scully is quick to point out that they’ve fallen on the right side of close games too, however: “All of my three seasons have been decided by one goal. The first season we won the crucial game by a goal that got us promoted, the next season we lost a playoff by a goal that relegated us and last season we lost the playoff by a goal that meant we didn’t get promoted.”

“This is why all throughout the course of the season we are so focused on small details, because we are aware of the fact that in the last three seasons the definition of success and failure has been by one goal”, he says.

To close such small margins requires meticulous preparation, and Scully tells me that the squad has had to sacrifice some of the more “fun” aspects of training to make strides in the right direction: “We have to put ourselves in the position to be in the [playoff] game this coming season, then make sure our level – from goalkeeper to subs to coaches on the sideline – is two to three per cent better than that game last year. And if everyone is two or three per cent better, then the whole team is going to be 20 to 30 per cent better.”

“It might seem very trivial to be spending 30 minutes of a training session on a very particular aspect of our performance or tactics, but in actual fact we remember when this wasn’t right last April and it costs us a goal”, he adds.

“Ultimately most of the goals are preventable and it’s a matter of trying [to] move the possibility of the opposition scoring slightly downwards. You’ll never get it to be zero, but in hockey if someone is standing one metre in either direction, that is going to significantly tweak that probability.”

Scully does admit that it is difficult to motivate his players when I ask him about these “two or three per cent” drills, and getting his players to see the bigger picture. “It’s boring – players want to play. They don’t come to Santry on a cold, dark night in November to stand around, but from my perspective it’s a balance of making training enjoyable and challenging.”

“You can’t escape the fact that there are elements of sport that are sorted out when people aren’t running at 100 miles an hour, playing games, scoring goals and enjoying themselves. At times you have to focus on the nitty-gritty aspects of where you want players to be on a pitch and how it all interlinks.”

Scully himself represented Dublin University Hockey Club as a student, and is acutely aware of the special atmosphere around the hockey clubs in College: “It is one aspect of our club that we need to hone in on, we are very proud to rep the university. It is something that other clubs don’t have – players look at it as their responsibility to represent the university as well as they can.”

“We have girls on the team at the moment whose parents came to one of the games early on in the season and both fathers looked at each other and realised they had played rugby together for Trinity years ago. So you get these connections that make the group a little bit stronger socially, which helps the performance of the team. You need to draw on the fact that girls had older sisters, brother and parents involved in the club, all of that increases the bond.”

Coming to the end of our conversation, I ask Scully about his thoughts on the success of the Irish women’s hockey team, who recently qualified for the Olympics in Tokyo next summer. He swoons over the impact it has had on the hockey community: “Hockey is a minority sport in Ireland and the circles are very small. Everybody is absolutely delighted for the team. The hockey community gets a lift from it, it raises the profile of the sport which everyone recognizes is going to help bump up the sport.”

With all this in mind, Scully is still focused on the task at hand: there is a job to be done at DUHLC. Unbeaten provincial campaigns – as impressive as they are – do not secure promotion to EYHL. As the season rolls on, we will wait and see if they can bridge those fine margins when it comes to playoff time.

University Times



Dar Hockey Academy's Another Successful European Tour

By Ijaz Chaudhry


Jubilant Dar HA Boys with Trophy

Pakistan Hockey seems to have reached the lowest ebb in its history — now ranked a lowly 17th in world rankings and the national team unable, yet again, to qualify for the Olympics — and one keeps hearing about the Pakistan Hockey Federation’s struggles in arranging funds to send teams abroad to fulfill international commitments. In these bleak times, there is still a ray of hope in a small training school in Lahore known as the Dar Hockey Academy.

 It would not be amiss to say that the Academy is the country’s finest hockey nursery. Founded in Lahore by the 1984 Olympic gold-medalist Tauqeer Dar, it has been of regular service to the national sport by providing players for the national team.

 “Our academy is a breeding ground for talented players,” says the Academy’s President Tauqeer Dar. “We also arrange foreign tours to leading hockey nations to sharpen the skills of the boys by playing against the top sides of leading hockey nations.”                                

The Dar Hockey Academy’s recent tour of hockey superpowers Holland was the Academy’s sixth visit to Europe in nine years. With one exception, the boys, aged 16 to 22, played 10 matches, nine in Holland and one in Belgium. The first six games in Holland were against the club sides of the Dutch League. Next, they figured in a six-team tournament at Boxtel. Almost all the sides in Holland fielded their top tier teams, which include professional players. Three teams — HGC, Den Bosch and Tilburg — are in the Hoofdklasse, the top tier of the Dutch League, universally acknowledged as the most competitive domestic hockey competition.                                                                                              

In Belgium, the academy’s team came across KHC Dragons, the biggest club of the country and the reigning world and European champions.

As always, Dar Hockey Academy camped at HC MOP, the hockey and cricket club in Vught near Eindhoven. Their first two matches were played on ‘home’ ground. The hospitality of the HC MOP was forgotten as the guests from Pakistan scored a big win against them. Den Bosch were also swept aside.

On the invitation of the Academy, Dutch hockey legend Paul Litjens, whose tally of 267 goals remained a world record until it was overtaken by Pakistan’s Sohail Abbas, had also travelled to Vught to watch this game.              

He was suitably impressed. “The Dar Academy boys played very well,” Litjens remarked. “They have the potential to become an asset for Pakistan hockey in the future. I appreciate the efforts of the academy in nurturing raw talent and arranging such preparatory tours to the world’s leading hockey nations.”

For their next fixture, the Academy’s players stepped out to play HGC at The Hague, where it once again managed an easy victory. There were many distinguished faces in the crowd and Aizaz Khan, deputy head of mission at the Pakistan Embassy in Holland, was one of them. Present also was the Dutch hockey legend Marc Delissen (Olympics and World Cup winner) and another distinguished Olympian and World Cupper Maarten van Grimbergen.

However, Dar’s team was tested to the limit at Breda in the fourth game. Breda had hosted the last edition of the Champions Trophy in 2018 — the very same Champions Trophy competition played among the top hockey teams of the world that was started at Lahore in 1979 has now been replaced by the high profile FIH Pro League.

In a thriller, the lead changed twice before the Dar Hockey Academy came from 1-2 behind to emerge 3-2 victorious over a far more experienced opponent. At Boxtel, too, they had a resounding 4-0 success over a formidable MEP side.   

Then it was time for the Belgian venture. The squad crossed the border to play KHC Dragons in Antwerp. The Dragons had finished fourth in the National League this year and were the champions the previous season. Apart from the Belgians, the Dragons’ side enjoyed the services of an Irish World Cupper, an Australian international and a Dutch. The game turned out to be a humdinger.

The Dar Hockey Academy led 3-0 five minutes into the third quarter. But the seasoned hosts made a spirited comeback and, through two set piece conversions, reduced the lead to the minimum. On a turnover, however, the lads from Pakistan scored again to win the game 4-2.

After the match, the Dragons’ head coach couldn’t help but comment, “Your skills are better than ours.” It was some comment from the trainer of the biggest club of the country, which is also the reigning world champion.

Back in Holland, the Dar Hockey Academy faced another mighty side in Tilburg HC, whose head coach is the double Olympic gold medalist Jeroen Delmee. The Dutch stalwart is also the coach of the fast improving French national side. It was yet another memorable encounter. Tilburg, who, like other Dutch clubs, were in the final phase of preparation for the Hoofdklasse, surprised the colts with two well taken penalty corner goals in the first half. They added two more in the third quarter. Four goals down with just 15 minutes left, the young lads of the Academy displayed resilience way beyond their years and managed to make it 2-4 before close of play. It could have been closer but the visitors couldn’t utilise at least three good opportunities in the dying minutes. However, the spirited fightback drew applause from everyone.

After their first defeat in seven matches, it was tournament time. The Metjehart Top Tournament at Boxtel featured six teams. The town is home to more than 60 families of Pakistani expatriates and they attended the matches in good numbers.

The Lahore-based academy, studded with players from different parts of Pakistan, won both its pool games with ease, 3-0 and 4-0, qualifying for the final. From the other pool, the hosts MEP also qualified for the final.

The final was held in a festive atmosphere on a bright Sunday afternoon with good support for both the sides. The expat Pakistanis with their families came carrying Pakistan flags with a dhol-beater. Pakistan’s ambassador in Holland, Shujaat Rathore, also came all the way from The Hague to witness the final.            

The Dar Hockey Academy didn’t disappoint. Deservedly, they won the final by two goals to nil. Later, they were feted to a lavish meal by the proud Pakistanis in Boxtel.

The pride felt by expat Pakistanis is understandable. If nothing else, the Academy’s exploits have showed that all hope is not yet lost on Pakistan’s hockey front.

TAILPIECE: A VIDEO COVERING THIS TOUR: LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TDyMDqK0Gk&t=62s

Ijaz Chaudhry writes on hockey & other sports. For more about him and his work, visit: www.sportscorrespondent.info  

Fieldhockey.com

Fieldhockey.com uses cookies to assist with navigating between pages. Please leave the site if you disagree with this policy.
Copyright remains with the credited source or author