Lautoka’s oldest hockey tournament returns after a lapse of two years
THE oldest surviving hockey club in Lautoka, Mates, will host its annual championship after a lapse of two years at Nadovu Park this weekend.
Mates Hockey Club has come a long way since it was founded in the late 1980s by Jimmy Little, Herbert Pickering, the late Claude Campbell, Tommy Levy, Isaac Johnson and Hynie Coffin.
Mates Hockey Championship director Fergus Underwood said this would be their 31st tournament.
“We anticipate a total of eight men's teams and five women's teams,” he said.
“The teams participating are from Ba, Lautoka and Suva.”
The tournament was last played in 2019 before the COVID pandemic hit Fiji.
“Naidrodro from Ba will pose the biggest threat to the top seeds in the men's division.
“They were the underdogs during the Marist Eastgate Memorial Championship that was held in Lautoka last month.
“They proved to be the giant killers by surprisingly taking out the title after defeating Stingers during penalty strokes.
“We thank Medica Pacifica Pte Ltd especially managing director Bhoo Gautam for stepping in this year as our major sponsor to make this tournament happen.”
Ventures and Marist are the top guns from Suva.
Rockefellers and Blue Star will lead the home charge.
Underwood said former Fiji captain Hector Smith Jr would lead the Ventures men's team which would include Harry Heritage,
“Kyle Kava will guide the Blue Star,” he said.
“In the women's competition Marist is the top seed and will have the likes of Alsace Smith
Junior and Lala Ravatu.”
Underwood said the men's teams would be divided into two pools.
“The top two teams from each pool will proceed to the semifinals. Thereafter the teams will play for their placing from one to eight. For the women, it will be a round robin competition with the top four going through to the semi-finals.” Matches will start at 8.30am on Saturday.