HOCKEY:Hockey goes indoors this weekend for the first phase of the National Indoor Trophy with venues at Belfast's Queen's University, Gormanstown College in Co Meath and Loughlinstown in Dublin.
With the 12 teams divided into two groups of six Avoca kick off the Gormanstown College group against Corinthains in the first 10.30am match tomorrow morning. With games running 17 minutes a side, the venue also hosts Three Rock Rovers, Cookstown, Glenanne and Clontarf.
Mossely and Pembroke open proceedings in Queen’s tomorrow afternoon with NICS, YMCA, Suttonians and Railway Union also in the group.
Defending champions Three Rock Rovers open the defence of their title in the second match in Gormanstown against Ulster side Cookstown before playing Avoca in the final match of that session. Three teams will qualify from each group for the finals, which will be run over the weekend of January 12th-13th.
Many involved in hockey were disappointed that the sport received just €800 from almost €26 million in the recently announced Sports Capital Grants scheme, the first round in four years. That went to Boyne HC. People in the sport have been asking why so little landed into a sport that this year was just a match away from qualifying for the Olympic Games in men and women.
There were many other winners among the 2,170 applications, including Cork City Archery Club, which received €6,000; the Midlands Martial Art and Training Centre, €4,500; Sitjaipetch Muay Thai Club in Cork, €12,000; and Oran GAA club in Roscommon, €100,000 – or 125 times the entire amount that hockey received.
