The sporting attention may currently be fixated around the college cup football, but unbeknown to many another significant college sports tournament is about to commence on Sunday, in the shape of the college hockey cup.
Last year’s inaugural competition was dominated by Halifax, and in all ‘Fax final, the college’s 2nd team emerged as surprise victors, and were crowned champions. This year James have proved to be by far the strongest outfit in the college league, marauding to the college title after going unbeaten all year.
The college cup however is a completely different game, and being six-a-side it brings a host of other teams into contention. The general consensus is likely to be that the James and Halifax teams will be the strongest due to their wealth of talent, but both colleges are likely to split their best players between the two squads.
Other colleges such as Alcuin, Derwent and Langwith look set to take a different approach in concentrating their strength into one team, whilst Goodricke have entered three teams into the competition and Vanbrugh just the one. All of this means that an intriguing tournament lies in store, with several strong teams vying to emerge victorious.
Goodricke’s Tom Merriman, who has been responsible for organising the competition, told Vision: “There are so many strong teams who believe they can win it this year, so it’s going to be interesting! It’ll be a great exhibition of the strengths of college sport, and I can’t wait to get stuck in.”
In total there are fourteen teams in the competition, who have been divided into two groups of seven. Each team will play six group matches, with the top two from each group progressing through to the cup, third and fourth to the trophy and fifth and sixth to the plate, with semi-finals and final following to decide who will be crowned champions in each.
“It’s really exciting that the cup is going to continue for a second year, providing more opportunities for college hockey to continue to grow throughout the year,” added College Sport Officers Amy Ballard and Meg Phillips. “The nature of college cups bring a different atmosphere to college sport and getting spectators down is a brilliant way to increase college spirit, not to mention inter-college rivalry.”
A detailed look at all of the teams, their strengths, weaknesses and prospects can be seen in part two of the tournament’s preview tomorrow on Vision. Fixtures start this weekend, and will be contested every Sunday:
Sunday Week 3
……… G3 v D2 ……… 11-12
……… J1 v A1 ………
……… G1 v H2 ………
……… H1 v L1 ……… 12-1
……… G2 v V1 ………
……… D1 v A2 ………
Sunday Week 4
……… A1 v G3 ……… 9-10
……… D2 v G1 ………
……… L2 v J1 ………
……… V1 v H1 ……… 10-11
……… L1 v D1 ………
……… J2 v G2 ………
……… G1 v A1 ……… 11-12
……… G3 v L2 ………
……… H2 v D2 ………
……… D1 v V1 ……… 12-1
……… H1 v J2 ………
……… A2 v L1 ………
Sunday Week 5
……… G1 v L2 ……… 11-12
……… H2 v A1 ………
……… G3 v J1 ………
……… D1 v J2 ……… 12-1
……… A2 v V1 ………
……… H1 v G2 ………
Sunday Week 6
……… L2 v H2 ……… 11-12
……… J1 v G1 ………
……… A1 v D2 ……..
……… J2 v A2 ……… 12-1
……… G2 v D1 ………
……… V1 v L1 ………
Sunday Week 7
……… H2 v J1 ……… 9-10
……… D2 v L2 ………
……… G1 v G3 ………
……… A2 v G2 ……… 10-11
……… L1 v J2 ………
……… D1 v H1 ………
……… J1 v D2 ……… 11-12
……… G3 v H2 ………
……… L2 v A1 ………
……… G2 v L1 ……… 12-1
……… H1 v A2 ………
……… J2 v V1 ………
Sunday Week 8
GrpA 1st vs GrpB 2nd 11-12
GrpA 3rd vs GrpB 4th
GrpA 5th vs GrpB 6th
GrpA 2nd vs GrpB 1st 12-1
GrpA 4th vs GrpB 3rd
GrpA 6th vs GrpB 5th
Sunday Week 9
Cup Final 11-12
Trophy Final
Plate Final
