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News for 29 January 2017

All the news for Sunday 29 January 2017


Delhi Waveriders hold Ranchi Rays 0-0 in a close encounter   



Ranchi, 28th January 2017: Delhi Waveriders pushed home team Ranchi Rays to the limit to split the points with a 0-0 draw in a pulsating encounter at the fifth edition of the Coal India Hockey India League here on Saturday.

The first quarter was dominated by the Delhi Waveriders who started strong with better ball possession. They started showing more urgency and intent, forcing the Ranchi Rays back on every attack. Through concise incisive passing Delhi Waveriders started breaking down the Ranchi Rays defence each time they launched a counter. The first chance fell to Talwinder Singh with a fierce reverse hit to fire in the opener in the 3rd minute of the match. Tyler Lovell, in the Ranchi Rays goal came off the line quickly and blocked the shot to deny the visitors a lead.

The pressure paid off soon enough though. Mandeep Singh won Delhi Waveriders their first PC of the game, thanks to sloppy defence within the circle by Ranchi Rays. From the flick, Austin Smith, did not disappoint with a hard push, but could not beat the goalkeeper as the two teams went into the first break in a stalemate.

Delhi Waveriders showed their resilience, coming back from the two-minute break, discomforting Ranchi Rays who made as many as seven circle penetrations but in vain. The home team though had a golden chance at converting, within a minute into the second quarter, but Gurbaj Singh’s deflection from within the circle missed the goal by inches. The second quarter too remained goal less.

It seemed as though fortunes would change in the third quarter when Delhi Waveriders’ Simon Child appealed for a high-ball coming off Gurbaj Singh’s stick within the striking circle through video referral. His appeal was upheld and the visitors were handed a penalty corner. This time, skipper Rupinder Pal Singh taking the strike but Ranchi Rays goalkeeper Lovell was on top of his game so was the Ranchi Rays defender Flynn Ogilvie with some superb stick work to ensure they denied Delhi Waveriders a lead.

The battle for supremacy continued into the final quarter with both teams pressing hard and chances flying both ways. Ranchi Rays missed a sure shot winner when Gurbaj Singh passing wide off Ashley Jackson who had positioned himself perfectly to deflect the ball into the goal. The teams had to settle with a draw and split the points from the encounter.

Parvinder Singh won the prize of Rs 25,000 for being the Hero Young Achiever of the Match from Olympian Mr. Manohar Topno.

The Most Entertaining Player of the Match was awarded to Christopher Ruhr of Ranchi Rays that came with a prize money of Rs 25,000 and presented by Mr. R.S Mahapatro, Director (Personnel), Central Coalfields Ltd.

Ranchi Rays Gurbaj Singh was declared the Man of the Match and was awarded a prize money of Rs 50,000 by Mr. J Ranjan, Founder and CEO, Intelliber Technologies.

Official HIL site



Delhi WR stops Ranchi Rays with a draw

s2h team



Delhi Waveriders managed to stop the otherwise rampaging home outfit Ranchi Rays with a measured 0-0 draw in the Match No.7 today in the Hockey India League.

Harendra Singh's crack outfit posted an impressive 7-2 win over Kalinga in its last outing. But today was different.

Despite a heroic game from Gurbaj Singh, both in defence and in forwardline, Ranchi failed to move the score board.

He stopped a goalline save from Rupinder Pal Singh scoring, and then once dived full length inside D to deflect a solid Simon Child carpet push into D.

Fittingly, Gurbaj Singh was declared Man of the Match.

Ranchi was cynosure of eyes today after their rout of Kalinga the other day. However, its forwards Christopher Ruhr, Ashley Jackson and impact making Manpreet Singh Sr were not given any elbow room by the defensive Delhi.

The precise defence of DWR was such that that the home side failed to even get a single penalty corner in the entire match.

However, DWR got two panalty corners, but each time the Ranchi Rays came out with solid dfence to deny any liberty.

Coaches known for cautious and defensive strategy, Harendra Singh of Ranchi Rays and Cedric D'Souza of Delhi Waveriders, lived up to their labels till the half time at least.

The game meandered much of time in the midfield, resulting only a penalty corner in the whole of first 30 minutes which also DWR had to waste.

Harendra Singh considered his team was lucky today, "the other side was dominant and my team saved on goalline a couple DWR goal attempts.

Action will now move to neighbourhood Bhubneswar where Kalinga will engage Uttar Pradesh Wizards.

AWARDS

THRILLING GOAL Rs.50K: B
YOUNG ACHIEVER AWARD 25k: Parvinder Singh
MOST ENTERTAINING PLAYER: Christopher Ruhr
MAN OF THE MATCH Rs.50K: Gurbaj Singh

Stick2Hockey.com



Dutchman Sjoerd to be next Indian women’s coach

DHARAMSALA: With the Indian men’s hockey team making its mark on the world scene, Hockey India is now concentrating on developing the women’s team as well and raising its profile.

The first step towards it has been taken with the federation zeroing in on former Dutch women’s National coach, Marijne Sjoerd, to lead the National team for the next four years.

With the exit of Australian Neil Hawgood as coach, the federation had invited applications for the job. The last date for the same was January 8, after which the applicants were short-listed, and Sjoerd finalised.

While an official announcement is yet to be made, senior federation officials confirmed the decision. The name was also approved by the Sports Ministry’s committee responsible for the appointment of foreign personnel in a meeting with federation officials a few days ago.

With Sjoerd’s appointment, the various team managements in Indian hockey will have a predominantly orange hue, with High Performance director David John the sole Australian. “The meeting was attended by Hockey India CEO Elena Norman and men’s coach Roelant Oltmans besides High Performance director David John.

Sports Secretary Injeti Srinivas led the Ministry panel and Sjoerd’s name was accepted. Only a formal final approval from the Minister remains,” a federation official confirmed.

The contract will be till Tokyo Olympics 2020 and Sjoerd would be paid approximately the same as Hawgood ($13,000).

Sjoerd led the Dutch Under-21 women’s side to a World Cup title and led the senior women’s side to gold at the Hockey World League semifinals in 2015, before quitting after a difference of opinion with the Dutch federation.

Ministry sources added that Sjoerd would be accompanied by compatriot Eric Vanek as strategy coach and is likely to take charge of the women’s squad latest by mid-March after completion of paperwork and formalities.

The Indian women are currently in Bhopal for a conditioning camp. Hawgood’s contract ran out in November 2016 and was not renewed.

Former Hockey India president Narinder Batra had earlier said the federation’s target was to get the women’s team consistently into the top-8, both in rankings and at the Olympics.

The Hindu



Inverleith and Grove Menzieshill to meet in men’s indoor final



Defending men’s indoor hockey champions Inverleith, and 19-times title winners Grove Menzieshill, will contest the final of this season`s men’s indoor first division championship after they saw off the challenge of Grange and Bromac Kelburne respectively in the semi-finals.

Inverleith maintained their quest for their fifth championship title by defeating Grange 7-4 in the all-Edinburgh clash.

The champions were certainly given an early reminder that Grange were to be no push-overs as the underdogs went into an early two goal lead through Luke Cranney and Callum Milne.

Inverleith retaliated strongly, Patrick Christie and Derek Salmond had the scores level at 2-2 midway through the first half. By the interval further goals from Adam McKenzie and Stephen Dick at a penalty corner put Inverleith 4-2 ahead

But this ding-dong affair was far from finished, Grange drew level with goals from Duncan Riddell and John McCluskey.

Salmond restored Inverleith`s lead at 5-4, a tiring Grange replaced their goalkeeper with an additional outfield player to try to retrieve the tie, but only allowed Christie to grab two late goals for his own hat-trick.

Grove Menzieshill were the early pacesetters with three goals in the opening ten minutes through Chris Wilson, Ross McPherson and Gavin Tomlinson. The lead failed to reach the interval as Michael Bremner, Kiwi Nick Finlayson and Johnny Christie levelled the match for the Paisley side.

The tie was still up for grabs with four minutes left, Aiden McQuade from the spot and Cameron Golden put the Dundonians 5-3 up, but again Kelburne refused to surrender with further strikes by Finlayson and Christie.

The Taysiders` greater experience and a yellow card for Kelburne kicking back Josh Cairns told in the end, McPherson made it 6-5 from a penalty corner and Ben Cromar added another at the death to earn Grove Menzieshill a place in the final.



Perhaps Hillhead failed to make up enough ground on Grange to reach the semi-final stages, but they certainly pulled out all the stops to hold Kelburne to an 8-8 draw in a cracking, high-scoring affair.

A shock seemed on the cards when the Glasgow side raced into a 4-1 interval lead, Callum Duke opened from the spot and that was followed by goals from David Gay, Ewan Campbell and Andrew Black, while Johnny Christie got Kelburne`s only counter.

A shock seemed even more likely as Hillhead advanced their lead to 6-1 two minutes into the second half through Black and Campbell again.

The adverse situation finally donned on the Paisley side and the goals flooded in; Christie added another two to make the inevitable hat-trick; Michael Bremner scored three while Nick Finlayson also made a contribution to bring the tally to 7-6. Duke levelled at 7-7, Kelburne`s Lee Morton made it 8-7, and in the closing minutes Jackson Corry Duff gave Hillhead a well-earned share of the points.

In the other final Pool A match there was another upset in the offing as Grange was being held to a 4-4 draw by bottom side Uddingston, only for John McCluskey to save the Edinburgh side with the winner inside the final minute.

Again it was the underdog that seemed to be in control with a 4-1 lead two minutes into the second half, Barry Platt scored twice, but back came Grange to level at 4-4 through a double from McCluskey and Callum Milne before the belated winner.

No such excitement and drama from the final games in Pool B, Inverleith started off with an 11-1 victory over Clydesdale. There were hat-tricks for Derek Salmond and Patrick Christie with Fabian Wolski picking up a double.

Ironically Grove Menzieshill beat Western Wildcats by the same margin, there was a hat-trick for Ben Cromar and doubles for both Cameron Golden and Chris Wilson.

Clydesdale recovered their composure sufficiently to claim fifth spot in the championship with an 8-6 win over Hillhead. After taking a three goal lead in the opening eight minutes, there were two for Struan Walker and a penalty corner conversion by Andrew Allan, Clydesdale never lost the initiative throughout the contest.

There was a hat-trick for Hillhead`s Callum Duke but Clydesdale held their nerve to record their third victory of the competition.

Uddingston surrendered their top flight status after going down 6-2 to the Wildcats. The latter did the damage in the first half with a four goal lead without reply, veteran Scott McCartney scored twice with Andrew and Joe McConnell picking up the others.

The second half was a more even affair, Tom Hyndman and Laurie McKelvie opened Uddingston`s account but McCartney for his own hat-trick and Andrew McConnell added two more for the Auchenhowie side.


Uddingston v Grange

Scottish Hockey Union media release

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