Six matches will kick off the third annual Noble House sponsored Goals Galore Indoor Hockey tournament organised by the Guyana Hockey Board on Monday evening at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Defending men’s champions Georgetown Cricket Club ‘B’ will battle Everest Hikers ‘A’ in the feature game of the evening in what is expected to be a scorcher in one of two first division matches carded.
The tournament’s opener will, however, see action in the ‘B’ division with Everest ‘B’ taking on their Hikers Ladies in the first game billed to start at 17:30 hours.
GCC Tigers will do battle with Old Fort ‘B’ in the second fixture followed by GCC Spartans squaring off with Carib Degenerates and the National under-21 squad playing under the name Shakatan will oppose Western Dragons of West Demerara.
The other match of the night a first division game will pit Old Fort ‘A’ and GCC ‘A’.
From its inception two years ago, the Noble House Goals Galore Indoor Hockey Championship was truly a crowd pleaser.
With weaker teams given a goal handicap, every match is competitive and the stronger senior teams are tested to produce their best hockey to come from behind as less successful teams struggled to stave them off.
This year is likely to be no different, according to the tournament organisers.
With the tournament divided into two divisions this year, GCC ‘B’ will enjoy the largest handicap of the ‘A’ division beginning with + 6 goals.
Joining them in the A division are champions of the most recent indoor competition in July, Everest Hikers with +2, GCC A + 4 and Old Fort A +5.
With ladies hockey having developed its quality significantly in the last two years, the ladies teams will join the men’s lower division for the first time for a clash of the genders.
Last year’s defending ladies champions the GCC Tigers enter the tournament in the B pool with a +4 handicap along with archrivals Everest Hikers ladies and Everest ‘B’ men.
The largest handicap of the pool goes to the young GCC Cubs ladies with +6 while Old Fort ‘B’ starts on +3, Carib degenerates and Shakatan both with +1 and Western dragons come from behind with a zero goal start.
The tournament will run until September 19 with matches carded for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the Sports Hall.
