Battles royal this weekend as teams vie to close on log-leading Maties

THE local hockey league is set to light up this weekend with three crucial men’s Grand Challenge games taking place and two ladies grand challenge games as well.

Stellenbosch University are currently on their mid-year break and will only be in action again towards the end of July.

Both Maties men’s and ladies teams are currently log-leaders in their respective divisions and it bears testament to the superb work been done by director of hockey, Paul Revington, and coaches Ashlin Freddy and Jenny King.

The Victorians teams are also well-placed with the men’s team third on the log and the ladies team fourth.

The Maties are unbeaten in eight matches, winning seven and drawing one (against secondplaced UCT). Their last victory was against a youthful WPCC team and they comfortably beat them 4-2.

The precision and skill of the Maties team was exquisite and they have the ability to change gears when they need to.

Charlie Bowren, Alex Stew- art, Andrew Hobson and captain, Keenen Horne are players that are having an outstanding season thus far. Horne’s omission from the national set-up remains a mystery as he his comfortably one of the top attackers in the country.

Maties lead the log on 22 points with UCT 2nd on 14 points. There is an almighty scrap below them with four teams vying for two spots in the top four.

It will be crucial for teams hoping to end in the top four with Fish Hoek, Central and WPCC hoping to bag wins and move up the ladder.

The match of the weekend sees WPCC host UCT at Avenue de Mist on Sunday afternoon at 1.30pm.

WPCC will have Rhett Halkett back and his presence adds another dimension to their play. UCT are playing well this season and Gregg Clarke has done wonders with his squad.