MEN'S HOCKEY:FORMER IRELAND player Iain Lewers will be free to play for the British squad from May 1st having been released from the usual three -year quarantine period. The Ulster player will be available for selection for Team GB in a tournament in Malaysia from May 5th-11th six weeks before the three-year period has passed.
Lewers applied for early release and following arbitration this was accepted. The request for early release will now be sent to the FIH governing body for their approval.
Lewers hopes to play in the London Olympic Games with Britain and join the ranks of Stephen Martin, Jimmy Kirwood and Billy McConnell, who won gold and bronze medals at the Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul Olympics in 1988.
Domestic hockey largely moves indoors this weekend where six teams meet in the final stages of the National Indoor Trophy.
The six, Glenanne, Pembroke and Three Rock Rovers in Group Three and Monkstown, Railway and YMCA in Group Four 4 (Women’s teams are in Groups One and Two) have been distilled from 22 starting clubs and will be run off in the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght over Saturday and Sunday, when the semi-finals and finals take place.
Pembroke are the current holders with the winners travelling to Lousada, Portugal, on February 18th-20th to take part in the Challenge 1 event.
There is just one Leinster Senior League match, between Fingal and Corinthians in ALSAA. It’s an important match as Corinthians are seeking to move up into the fifth place on the table currently occupied by Railway Union as the Sandymount side attend to their indoor duties.
Three points for Fingal, who are currently on six and third from the bottom, would help ease their anxieties about being so close to the bottom two sides, UCD, who went down 8-2 to Pembroke for the second Tuesday in succession, and bottom placed Weston.
Saturday – National Indoor Trophy, Basketball Arena 9-5.15: Leinster Senior League, Division One: Fingal v Corinthains, ALSAA, 2.30; Irish Senior Cup: Cork C of I v Cookstown, Garryduff, 1.30.
Sunday – National Indoor Trophy, Basketball Arena: Semifinal 10am, Final 5.30.
