THE Hikers Hockey Club Western Union Junior Team recently returned from Trinidad where they competed in the Magnolias International Indoor Tournament. The young Hikers competed in the Under-21 men’s category, while two of their female members played for Magnolias 2 in the girls category.
The tournament started last Friday with Hikers’ first match being against Trinidad national champions Queens Park.
The game started evenly with both sides playing tentatively but after the first five minutes Queens Park adjusted their game and took advantage of the inexperienced Hikers to race out to a 4-0 lead just after halftime.
As the game progressed Hikers grew in confidence and started playing their high tempo style of hockey, which resulted in numerous raids on the Queens Park goal. Hikers clawed their way back to 3-4, but their earlier mistakes had already caused the damage.
In their second match, which was played on Saturday morning Hikers got off to a blazing start and went into the half-time break 3-0 up against Paragon.
At the start of the second half Hikers squandered numerous opportunities to extend their lead early and Paragon made them pay by scoring four unanswered in the final 12 minutes of the game to hand Hikers a crushing defeat.
That meant that Hikers went into their final group match against Fatima, needing to win by three clear goals to advance to the semifinal stage. Once again Hikers started well, playing a patient defence and counterattacking with lethal efficiency.
They were leading 2-0 going into the final three minutes of the game, with Fatima dropping low to try to prevent the third goal from being scored. Implementing an all-out press for that decisive third goal, Hikers inevitably left themselves open to the counterattack and Fatima levelled the game at 2, by converting both of their penalty corners within the dying minutes of the game.
The result meant that Fatima went through as the number two team from the group but lost to Notre Dame in the cross over semifinal.
Queen’s Park continued their outstanding year by defeating Petrotrin in the semifinal and then Notre Dame in the final. On the Ladies’ side Flora GCC celebrated their fourth consecutive Magnolias title by defeating Magnolias 1 in a shootout, while Paragon eclipsed Magnolias 2 in the third place playoff.
This is the third consecutive year that Hikers junior team have gone on an overseas tour, but it’s the first time they have competed in an international indoor tournament.