News for 17 May 2015
All the news for Sunday 17 May 2015
Signs of improvement for Scots against Spain
Scotland Senior Men showed definite signs of improvement in their second and third matches against Spain, following their opening defeat in the three match series on Wednesday.
The Scots lost out 4-2 to the hosts in yesterday's match in Barcelona, but were 2-1 up at one stage following a deft finish from Grove Menzieshill's Gavin Byers and a reverse stick effort from Alan Forsyth either side of half-time.
Nevertheless, Spain's goals from a Alex Casasayas double and strikes from Bosco Pérez-Pla and Manel Terraza Farré maintained their superiority and they took a 2-0 series lead.
In today's final match of the series, Scotland held the Spaniards to a 2-2 draw. Alvaro Iglesias opened the scoring for Spain, before Albert Beltran doubled the home side's advantage.
However, Wei Adams brought the Scots back into the contest shortly after half-time, diving to finish from close range.
The equalising goal was a fantastic solo effort from Hamish Imrie, the Grange striker intercepting a wayward pass on the halfway line before forcing away past the attentions of two defenders to cooly stroke the ball past the Spanish goalkeeper to make it 2-2.
Scottish Hockey Union media release
Tough Jaguars corner Police in Kakamega
By TITUS MAERO and AYUMBA AYODI
Kenya Police's Felix Okoth (left) dribbles past Cyril Mandela of Strathmore Gladiators during their Vaisakhi Hockey tournament match on April 22, 2015 at City Park Stadium. PHOTO | CHRIS OMOLLO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Western Jaguars claimed a major upset when they stunned Kenya Police 2-1 in a thrilling men’s hockey Premier League at Kakamega High School grounds on Saturday.
Police went into the match as favourites by virtue of their unbeaten run, having also beaten Jaguars' last year 3-1. The cops were also buoyed by their last weekend’s 2-1 victory angst defending champions Butali Sugar Warriors.
Well, Butali Warriors must have received the news with some sort of celebrations as Police miseries enabled them retain their league lead with 15 points drawn from five wins and a loss.
Police stayed second with 12 points from four wins and one loss, thanks to Western Jaguars’ splendid show to climb two places to third in the league with nine points. Jaguars now have three wins and one defeat.
Police, the 2012 champions, who were subjected to flurry of attacks by their skilful opponents, saw themselves at the back foot when Samuel Wokila ended the first half stalemate with a sizzler in the 42nd minute. Jaguars seem to have mastered the art of playing on the grass as they gave Police little breathing place. It’s no wonder that Amos Kibichi stretched the home team’s lead in the 52nd minute from another field goal.
Police, winners of the bronze medal at the 2011 African Club Championships, would turn on the style to pin Jaguars in their own half. That saw Oliver Chenje capitalised on a defense mix up to draw one back for Police on the stroke of full time.
WINNING WAYS
Jaguars’ coach-cum-player Mike Malungu praised his boys for a job well done. “The players exhibited consistency and coordinated very well,” said Malungu, who didn’t play owing to an injury.
“We had many chances but we failed to convert them unlike our opponents who utilised theirs well,” said Police coach Kenneth Kaunda. In today’s matches, Strathmore University, the 2010 and 2011 champions, hope to uphold their winning ways when they meet Greensharks.
Strathmore whacked the 2013 champions Nairobi Simba 3-0 last weekend and will be looking upon Richard Ochieng, Edwin Wanyama and Clayson Luvanda to do the damage again against Sharks.
United States International University-Africa (USIU-A) that is the only other side that is yet to concede defeat, were up against limping Wazalendo at City Park last evening before meeting Parkroad on Sunday.
In the women’s league, Sliders hope to bounce back from their heavy 0-9 defeat at the hands of Telkom Orange last weekend when they take on Strathmore University on Sunday.
Daily Nation
GGC holds Paragon to another draw
Nigel Simon
Alana Lewis
National and club captain Alana Lewis scored a pair of goals, but it was not enough, as defending champion Paragon was held to a second straight draw, 3–3, by Georgetown CC (GCC) in the T&T Hockey Board Women’s Championship Division. This was at the National Hockey Centre in Tacarigua, yesterday.
Zene Henry got the other goal for Paragon but GCC was equal to the task and got replies through Kerensa Fernandes, Gabriella Xavier and Sonia Jardine to earn a share of the spoils. With the second draw on the trot, Paragon moved to 11 points from five matches, three more than Harvard Checkers, which has a match in hand, followed by GCC with seven and Notre Dame, a further point behind.
On Friday night, national forward Blair Wynne also netted twice for Notre Dame in a 3–2 triumph over Courts Malvern. Chelsea Dey netted the Dames’ third in between Wynne’s brace, while former national captain and standout Sherlan Cabralis and her cousin Daniella Cabralis got Malvern’s goals to reduce the score to 2–1 and 3–2, respectively.
Cabralis (Sherlan) and national striker Krizia Layne had late one-on-one chances to earn a share of the points for the Malvernites, but they both muffed their chances. In the Men’s Championship Division, Defence Force missed a chance to close the gap on unbeaten leaders, Petrotrin, to five points after it was held by cellar-placed Fatima 2–2.
Jordan Vieira and Shane Newallo got a goal each for Fatima, but Defence Force got items from T&T international Shane Legerton and ex-national forward Neil Lashley to save face. The draw lifted Defence Force to eight points from four matches and second on the table, one ahead of Queen’s Park, but seven behind Petrotrin, which has maximum 15 points from five matches.
Results
YESTERDAY:
Women’s Championship:
Paragon 3 (Alana Lewis 2, Zene Henry) vs GCC 3 (Kerensa Fernandes, Gabriella Xavier, Sonia Jardine)
FRIDAY:
Women’s Championship:
Notre Dame 3 (Blair Wynne 2, Chelsea) vs Courts Malvern 2 (Shurlan Cabralis, Daniella Cabralis)
Men’s Championship:
Defence Force 2 (Shane Legerton, Neil Lashley) vs Fatima 2 (Shane Newallo, Jordan Vieira)
Upcoming matches
TODAY
Women’s Championship: GCC vs Notre Dame, 5 pm
Men’s Championship: Notre Dame vs Defence Force, 6.30 pm
Mixed Veterans: Courts Malvern vs Police, 8 pm
TOMORROW:
Mixed Veterans: Courts Malvern vs Police, 8 pm
WEDNESDAY
Mixed Veterans: Carib vs Fatima, 8 pm
THURSDAY
Mixed Veterans: Courts Malvern vs Defence Force, 8 pm
FRIDAY:
Women’s Championship: SC Magnolias vs Harvard Checkers, 6.30 pm
Men’s Championship: QPCC vs Defence Force, 8 pm
Trinidad Guardian
Fiji Schools hockey stars
Vishaal Kumar
THE Suva Primary School Hockey Association kick-off their weekly competition at the National Hockey Centre at Laucala Bay in Suva yesterday.
The first round of matches saw some exciting talent on show with competitions being tough even in the smaller grades.
Association Chairperson Seinimeli Pita said it was pleasing to see young students involving themselves in the sport.
She said the association was using its own finances and had been without sponsors for the last four years.
"It's very good to see these children take up hockey as a sport. Every year we notice the level of competition improving which is a plus sign for us," Pita said.
"Only downfall is that we don't have any sponsors so we are running on our own. We are planning to include more schools in the competition next year so we can have a longer season."
The competition will be held over eight weeks. In week four of competition the association will host the super six tournament followed by the super eleven tournament in week eight.
Results
Under-8
TLC 0- VPS 0, TLC 0- VPS 1
U10
ISS 2- MGM 0, TLC 2- ISS 0
U12
VPS0- TLC 2, MGM 0- VPS 0, TLC 0- ISS 0, ISS 0, MGM 3
U14
MGM 3- NPS 0, TLC 1- VPS 0.
The Fiji Times
Untapped talent
While hockey is relatively gender neutral, there remains an imbalance among high performance coaches. Research by one national association is seeking to open the door for talented female coaches
Hockey prides itself on being a gender neutral sport with equal playing opportunities for males and females. But, even in hockey, when it comes to coaching, figures and research show that there are striking gender in-balances when it comes to coaching, particularly higher up the coaching ladder.
A quick look at the number of female coaches on the bench at any international hockey match gives support to this statement. No team in the top 12 international sides has a lead female coach, and only two teams – Great Britain/England and USA – has a female assistant coach.
Scottish Hockey and the University of Stirling have joined forces to redress the gender in-balance that currently exists across sports coaching in general to help more women hockey coaches reach their potential within coaching. But first the research had to discover what the coaching landscape looked like in terms of gender.
A membership survey carried out by Scottish Hockey discovered that twice as many men as women were actively involved in coaching, with most women coaches working in child or youth coaching environments. Only one in five coaches in adult environments were women, and double the amount of men were qualified to lead coach status compared to women (30 compared to 13).
As a result of the research, Scottish Hockey set some targets. These included developing strategies to help more female coaches achieve level two or above so they could become lead coaches; identify and engage with unqualified female coaches and offer continued professional development opportunities; and promote coaching as a role for women in hockey.
The study, which was sponsored by Aberdeen Asset Management, was led by Justine Allen, from the School of Sport at the University of Stirling, in collaboration with Colleen Reid, Scottish Hockey Coaching Manager who is the lead for the programme. Over the course of the research the study revealed that a number of challenges and constraints existed that often acted as a barrier to female engagement in coaching, particularly to a higher level.
These included: family and work commitments; perceptions of the experience, knowledge, commitment and qualification needed; a lack of clarity on coaching pathways and a lack of knowledge about coaching opportunities.
Allen’s research concluded with some recommendations for improving the opportunities for female coaches. Among these measures were: creating more structured pathways, whether through clubs, districts or nationally; wider and more open advertisement of coaching opportunities; development of coaching networks; strategies to engage coaches on formal coaching course; and opportunities for those who have left hockey for a while – often through family or work commitments – to up skill and re-engage.
These conclusions were reached after interviews with 10 women who had been or were active in the field of hockey coaching. Five themes emerged which indicates why women either get into coaching or are lost from the system. One of the themes outlined how the 10 women got into coaching and shows that it is often a case of ‘being in the right place at the right time’. Being known in the club or the district as a high achieving player or someone with coaching experience will often lead to a person being approached to be a coach. The interviews with the women already coaching also indicated that opportunities to become involved in practical coaching experiences – with squads or teams, or through workshops – was invaluable and gave them a chance to observe, learn and discuss ideas with other coaches. Without this support coaches would not learn how to be a better coach or gain confidence in their role.
Another important factor is the personal support that coaches received. This could be from family members, team managers, peer-coaches, the coaching team or an education officer or coach manager from Scottish Hockey. All the coaches interviewed received support in one or more forms and felt they had developed trusted relationships within that support framework.
Scottish Hockey’s next step is to tackle the challenges and constraints that have been identified and lead the way in developing this vast pool of coaching talent that is currently untapped.
FIH site
Hockey TAP West Africa To Commence in Accra
GHANA/ENGLAND HOCKEY 4 YEAR DEVELOPMENT PARTENERSHIP PROJECT (HOCKEY TAP WEST AFRICA) COMMENCE IN ACCRA
The first part of the Ghana Hockey and England Hockey Development Partnership dubbed "Hockey TAP West Africa" which was introduced on 28th September 2014, will commence on 18th May 2015 in Accra.
A team of resource persons from the FIH, England Hockey and UK Sports will arrive in the country on Sunday 17th May 2015, to run the 10 day training and development program ending on 27th May 2015. The program is supported by UK Sports, Africa Hockey Federation (AfHF) and the Federation of International Hockey (FIH).
The program which would be held in Accra and Kumasi (Southern and Northern Sectors) would include; youth clinics, coaching courses, umpiring courses and a high performance training for the Women's National Team.
The National Women's Team would be in camp from Sunday 17th to Saturday 23rd May 2015 to undertake the high performance training session which is the first part of a process intended to qualify them for the next Commonwealth Games and possibly the Olympics.
The resource persons; Darren Cheese, Mark Javis, and Siegfried Aikman who specialize in the various aspects of this training program would take participants through 2 day intensive training sessions, which would certify them for Coaching level 1, Level 2 and Foundation and Advance Umpiring.
18 trainees from 5 West African Countries, namely; Nigeria, Cameroon, Sierra Leon, Togo and Ivory Coast would also be present in addition to Ghana's 24 coaches and 16 umpires per sector, to take the courses.
Lunching of the program would be on Monday 18th May 2015 at the Conference room of the Theodosia Okoh Hockey Stadium at 9:00am.
We as always urge all our Media Partners who have supported hockey through rain or shine, to be present to help tell our story, though due to financial constraints, the Association would not be able to make any financial contribution,
We would indeed by honored to welcome you all to this all important program.
GhanaWeb