News for 12 September 2018
All the news for Wednesday 12 September 2018
Kookas Using Darwin Matches To Fine-Tune For World Cup Defence
Ben Somerford.jpg)
The Kookaburras have arrived in the Top End for the Darwin International Hockey Open (DIHO) which coach Colin Batch says is all about fine-tuning ahead of the Men’s World Cup in India later this year.
World number one Australia will be one of the favourites for the World Cup in Bhubaneswar, India, when it takes place from 28 November to 16 December 2018.
Australia, who have won the past two World Cups, are in Pool B with England (ranked seventh), Ireland (10th) and China (17th).
The Kookaburras’ final official internationals before the World Cup will take place in Darwin, with the side to take on world number two Argentina as well as recent Asian Games finalists Japan (16th) and Malaysia (12th).
Australia will play Argentina in a one-off match on Sunday 16 September, before the DIHO gets underway officially on Tuesday 18 September.
“It’s about preparing for the World Cup now,” Batch said. “Having our final internationals in Darwin will be important to progress towards our final team for India.
“Playing in the heat is good for the World Cup and having an opportunity to play in good conditions with very good facilities in Darwin.
“Selection will be tough for the World Cup. We also have a training camp in Perth in October to finalise our team.”
Eddie Ockenden and Aran Zalewski will lead the side as co-captains while Josh Simmonds, Jack Welch and Jacob Anderson are in line for their international debuts.
The team flew from Perth to Darwin on Wednesday with local product Jeremy Hayward to play on home turf, in a rare thrill for the 25-year-old defender.
“Jeremy is really looking forward to going back home to play,” Batch said. “He doesn’t get that chance very often.
“He’ll be in the spotlight up there for sure. He’s become a very important player in defence for us.
“His outlet has been a feature of his game, he’s a tough defender and on top of that he’s got good drag flicks.
“Anyone who wants to see a local come good in Jeremy get along and watch the hockey up there.”
Tickets are available for the DIHO matches via Ticketbooth from $10 for children and $15 for adults.
The matches will not be streamed. Fans can follow @Kookaburras for live updates.
Kookaburras team for DIHO & Tests vs Argentina:
Athlete (City, State)
Jacob Anderson (Mackay, QLD)
Daniel Beale (Brisbane, QLD)
Josh Beltz (Hobart, TAS)
Timothy Brand (Chatswood, NSW)
Andrew Charter (Canberra, ACT)
Tom Craig (Lane Cove, NSW)
Matthew Dawson (Killarney Vale, NSW)
Kieran Govers (Wollongong, NSW)
Jake Harvie (Dardanup, WA)
Jeremy Hayward (Darwin, NT)
Tim Howard (Wakerley, QLD)
Tyler Lovell (Perth, WA)
Eddie Ockenden (Hobart, TAS)
Flynn Ogilvie (Wollongong, NSW)
Joshua Simmonds (Doncaster, VIC)
Matthew Swann (Mackay, QLD)
Corey Weyer (Biggera Waters, QLD)
Jack Welch (Hobart, TAS)
Dylan Wotherspoon (Murwillumbah, NSW) *Plays for QLD
Aran Zalewski (Margaret River, WA)
Australia v Argentina Fixture (all fixtures in local time/ACST):
Sunday 16 September 7pm – Australia v Argentina
2018 DIHO Fixtures (all fixtures in local time/ACST):
Tuesday 18 September 5:15pm – Argentina v Japan
Tuesday 18 September 7pm – Australia v Malaysia
Wednesday 19 September 5:15pm – Malaysia v Japan
Wednesday 19 September 7pm – Argentina v Australia
Friday 21 September 5:15pm – Malaysia v Argentina
Friday 21 September 7pm – Australia v Japan
Saturday 22 September 5pm – 3rd Place Final
Saturday 22 September 7pm – 1st Place Final
Hockey Australia media release
Ryan hat trick gets Grange off to a winning start
Grange started off the defence of their Scottish National League 1 title with a stirring 6-1 win over Aberdeen Standard Gordonians at Peffermill.
The champions put the Aberdonians to the sword in the first half, the highlight being a hat-trick from Frank Ryan, Austrian Clemens Rufnjak along with Aussie Dylan Bean adding the others for a 5-0 lead.
Adam Walker pulled one back for Gordonians in the second half but Bean added another from a set piece to complete the scoring.
Grange will be Scotland’s representative at EHL ROUND1 in Barcelona from October 5-7, 2018 where they are in a tough group alongside SV Arminen and HC Oranje-Rood.
Grange’s win was among three games to be played on the opening weekend of the Scottish league with Uddingston beating newly promoted Watsonians 4-2.
In the other contest, Hillhead and Clydesdale fought out a 1-1 draw. After a goalless first half, Sam Hayes put the Titwood-based side ahead only for Ewan Campbell to level for Hillhead.
Next weekend sees Grove Menzieshill make their seasonal bow when they go to Watsonians on Saturday. Grove won the Scottish playoffs last season, earning them a place in the EHL KO16 into the bargain. Kelburne start their campaign away to the Western Wildcats.
Scotland, meanwhile, finished second at the World Series Open in Portugal behind Russia, earning them a place in the next phase of the Olympic qualifying process.
Euro Hockey League media release
IOC draws with Navy thanks to a contentious penalty
PSB edges out HBN in a goal fest
K. Keerthivasan
Surging ahead: Jugraj Singh opened the account for Navy with a drag flick to the top of the net. Photo Credit: R. Ravindran
It wasn’t the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) team that one has come to know. It’s defence wasn’t compact, the attack was fragmented.
Overall, it was not the champion side that one has come to associate it with. Possessing a multitude of International players (senior & junior) in its ranks, IOC fell clearly short of its exalted standards.
Nevertheless, it managed to eke out a 1-1 draw with Indian Navy in a Pool B match of the MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup 92nd All-India hockey tournament here on Tuesday.
Later, it turned out to be a goal-fest in an another Pool B contest with 11 goals being scored. Punjab & Sind Bank (PSB) edged out Hockey Bengaluru (HBN) 6-5. Ashish Kumar Sharma was the star for PSB scoring four goals.
Credit to Navy for competing with IOC on equal terms. Be it marking the star IOC frontline or making inroads into the rival camp.
Jugraj Singh opened the account for Navy with a drag flick that hit the top of the roof in the first half. The Navy's ‘keeper Reydan Tidu did a good job with a couple of neat saves. IOC must consider itself a tad lucky to have equaliser scored against it through a contentious penalty stroke. An “intentional” offence by a Navy defender inside the circle on the right saw umpire Amit Saini show the spot. Gurjinder Singh converted it.
For PSB, it was an important tie for it to remain in the hunt. On the other hand, with two losses, HBN was looking, to go all out and, perhaps, prove a point.
With less than 27 minutes remaining for the hooter, eight goals (4-4) had already been scored, HBN fighting back every time it was down by a goal.
For the first time in the match, it went ahead through Kusha Gowda. PSB sealed the contest through two goals by Ashish: one a wonderful flick from the right and the other a clean hit that hit the roof of the net.
It looks intriguing as to which two teams will qualify from Pool B for the semifinals.
While IOC and PSB has seven points each from three matches, Navy too has seven from its quota of four. The final Pool match between PSB and IOC on September 13 (Thursday) will give a clearer picture.
Chennai Hockey Association is clearly out of the last four with one point from three matches.
The results:
Pool B: IOC 1 (Gurjinder Singh 60) drew with Navy 1 (Jugraj Singh 19).
PSB 6 (Ashish Kumar Sharma 12, 32, 46 & 57, Parvinder Singh 16, Onkar Singh 38) bt HBN 5 (Pratap Lakra 13 & 43, M.B. Cariappa 22, P. L. Thimanna 35, Kusha Gowda 44).
The Hindu
Six-Nation Hockey Tournament postponed till November
The Six-Nation Hockey Tournament that was scheduled to take place in Lahore this month has been postponed and will now be held in November.
Talking to APP, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) Secretary Shahbaz Ahmed Sr. said the reason to postpone the tournament is to assure participation of all the teams in the extravaganza.
He said besides Pakistan, other teams which were to participate in the tournament include Oman, Qatar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan.
“However Oman, Qatar and Sri Lanka excused and showed unwillingness to participate in the event due to financial reasons therefore we have to postpone the tournament,” he said.
He said, “We have also written a letter to Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) to assure all teams’ participation in the tournament.”
“The tournament will be held in Lahore in November and a total of Rs three million will be incurred to host it,” Shahbaz said.
He said the dates of the tournament will be finalized after consultation with AHF. “This event is very important for the revival of international hockey in Pakistan,” he said.
The Nation
Naveed urges PHF president to find ‘real culprits’
Mohammad Yaqoob
LAHORE: Pakistan Hockey Federation’s (PHF) director domestic and development Naveed Alam urged the body’s president Brig. (retd) Khalid Sajjad Khokhar to ‘find out the real culprits’ behind the national game’s poor running.
The former Olympian complained the federation has failed to take the steps to control the damage Pakistan hockey has gone through in the recent past.
“Though I am a part of the PHF, I am disappointed that the hockey has earned bad name due to different crisis which came in the last three years but no inquiry was initiated to control the damage by any one,” Naveed told Dawn.
Naveed said the team which Khokhar picked to run the federation has failed the president and and that he should have taken steps earlier to avoid making the situation more critical.
“The PHF faced the allegations of financial irregularities, the national and junior teams have failed to click at the international level in last three years but no action was taken against any one,” Naveed said.
“The PHF president should step forward to grill his secretary Shahbaz Ahmad Sr for all those failures.”
“And if the PHF president will waste more time then the IPC should come forward to grill the real culprits of all the failures,” Naveed added.
He appealed to the Inter-provincial ministry (IPC) to hold a separate meeting with the PHF to analyse the real situation prevailing in the federation, which was quite alarming.
He said out of total 110 members of the PHF congress, 60 per cent had already submitted a requisition to call the meeting of the congress but no decision had been taken at yet.
Naveed criticised the PHF for not making good use of the Rs 800 million fund received by the federation in the last three years from different quarters.
“Not a single paisa was allocated for the educational program. Not a single paisa was given to any district for holding district club championship from that huge amount,” said Naveed
“All the funds were used on two teams — the Pakistan senior team and on the development dquad, which had no future.”
“While the Pakistan senior team has failed to click, the development squad, run by Kamran Ashraf, a close friend of PHF secretary Shahbaz, has also failed to produce any player because overage players are included in it,” he said.
“All the funds spent on the development squad, which is in millions of rupees, have been drained out just at the cost of obliging one friend Kamran Ashraf.”
He said on Tuesday, the Punjab Hockey Association called a meeting of its executive committee in Lahore but not a single member turned up to attend it and that showed how the provincial bodies of the PHF were running.
Dawn