As if this weekend with the continuing awesome hockey in The Hague wasn’t enough to whet your appetite, the EHF is hosting no less that 10 EuroHockey club events this weekend…
That’s 10 venues, 10 hosts, 76 clubs from 28 countries all over Europe are preparing for what will be the highlight of their season! The chance to compete in a EuroHockey Tournament in 2014, to gain promotion, to earn points to perhaps climb to the dizzy heights of EHL for Men and EHCCC for Women in 2015.
A preview of EuroHockey Club Trophy, Men:
So who are they are where did the come from?
The host club Amsicora will be hoping for home advantage, it’s been a while since they played at this level in Europe, 2004 in fact!
Grange HC from Scotland are looking to perform well in this tournament but are focusing on the first game against the hosts and if things go well then our overall aim is to reach the final, their last appearance in the EuroHockey Trophy, Cardiff 2010 where they came 2nd. They have recently secured qualification for 2015 European competition by finishing 2nd in this season’s National Finals.
Therefore we are in charge of our own destiny at the European Trophy.As they are in semi final of the Scottish Cup competition they have been still training and along with matches against the Scottish U21. Gary Cameron is their sole international on the team but they do have a number of ex international and youth international players from Scotland, along with Juame Ventayol and Nani Malgosa are from Spain and have been playing for us this season. Grange’s ‘one to watch ‘ is Andrew Campbell, a talented midfielder who has excellent elimination skills and has produced a high level of performance throughout the season.
Whitchurch HC from Wales are a common feature at EuroHockey Tournaments, both Indoor and Outdoor with 10 EuroHockey
appearances under their belts, they are here to compete.
HC OKS – SHVSM Vinnitsa are the National Ukrainian Champions, in their last EuroHockey Trophy, in 2013 in Vienna they
finished 4th and so will be pushing for a higher placing this year and have EHL in their sights. With no International players on their team they are relying on a good performance overall from the whole team. In preparation for Cagliari they took to the hills in Beregovo, Ukraine for a camp along with games against Siemianowice Slaskie, Poland.
Ata from Azerbaijan are new to the EuroHockey Trophy having been promoted in 2013 from the Challenge, their traget is to
stay in the Division this year.
The other Italian team Bra Hc finished 6th in Vienna last year, with a 5th placing in 2011 in Rome. They are looking to
to stay in the Division and earn vital points towards EHL. Conditions in Cagliari will suit them better than most so they
are hoping to capitalise on that.
Navax AHTC from Vienna are here as they finished 2nd in the Austrian Championships. Their last appearance in Europe was
at EHL round1 in 2012 in East Grinstead. Having had a taste of EHL they are ambitious to get back to the top tier, but realistically somewhere between place 2nd and 4th place here in Cagliari is where their ambitions lie. Following this event they will play in National Final Four in 2 weeks time and hope to secure a EuroHockey place for next year. Not content with one ‘one to watch’ seems these 4 guys are the ones to watch out for, they are all former nternationals, GK Lukas Graser, captain Gerald Netal, topscorer Dominik Monghy and German Striker Lennard Gehrmann.
Finally Monkstown HC from Ireland had their last European trip in 1974, well before most of the team was born! ww.hookhockey.com caught up with Kyle Good one of the many Irish internationals on the team, whilst they have found training in the absence of any Irish competitions, as they had all finished earlier this year, tough he said ” We are going into the competition wanting to win and believe we can win it. If we do well, we get into the EHL. We are in good shape and everyone is getting excited now. Managing the heat will be the difficult thing but our games are at good times, early in the morning which will help and we have a good crowd coming along.”
In addition we have EuroHockey Challenges on and unlike the Trophy where points are awarded, they have direct promotion and relegation at stake.
Results all weekend will be posted here:
EuroHockey Club Trophy, Cagliari
EuroHockey Club Challenge, Rakovnik
EuroHockey Club Challenge II, Slagelse
EuroHockey Club Challenge III, Bratislava
EuroHockey Club Challenge IV, Kordin
Or follow us on twitter – @eurohockeyorg and under #EHClub14
And a full gallery will be on our Facebook page
Check out the Women’s preview here
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