Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
The Bahrain Hockey Association was true to its word as they delivered a hockey extravaganza unparalleled in the history of the Middle East, let alone Bahrain.
Newly-elected president Garner Vaz and his team of Anson, Jude and Rubert transformed the St Christopher's School grounds into an impressive and atmospheric hockey arena. In a well-planned and marketed weekend event, men, women and children from around the region competed for Middle East bragging rights.
With teams visiting Bahrain from Qatar, Kuwait and Dubai, the 'Hockey Mania' weekend could easily have been a regional 'goodwill games' with sides exchanging gifts and shirts off the field. However, with total prize money of over $3,000 the competition was fierce on the pitch.
While the crowds had the option of a variety of off-field entertainment, eyes were not diverted from the fast and furious action for long, despite the regular commentary from MC Kevin (not of the Krazy variety, but not very close to being sane either!)
In the men's league the Bahrain Hawks emerged from the group stage with the only perfect record, scoring 15 and conceding only 1 in the process. They continued their good form in the quarter-finals with a comfortable 5-0 win over the Companeros yet came unstuck in the semi-finals.
Despite dominating the game for long periods the Hawks were unable to convert their numerous chances and went down 2-0 to a well-disciplined Kuwait Independents.
This took the Kuwait team into the final against a technically excellent Qatar Wanderers team who cruised into a 3-0 lead. Qatar sat back in an attempt to protect their lead only to concede two quick goals, leading to a fittingly exciting finale. The Qatar team defended desperately and successfully held out for a deserved victory.
In the 'first of their kind' mixed and ladies competitions, the Bahrain Hawks A teams took both titles. The Hawks Mixed A showed its intent in their opening match with a thumping 7-0 victory with George Axtell netting a hat-trick. However, it was the midfield guile of Arjan Hanson-Singh who sliced open the defence of Hawks B in the final and who ultimately finished as the leading scorer. In a tight contest Hawks A took the lead just before half time. The hard-working B team hung on until just before the end when the floodgates opened leading to a 4-0 victory for Hawks A.
Making it a family affair, Hawks Ladies dominated through the goals of Puna Hanson-Singh, whose determination and power saw her slam a brace of goals into the far corner of the net. With the Hawks defence held firm by Player of the Tournament, Danielle Sheppard, they eventually ran out 4-0 winners in a scoreline that belies the tight nature of the match.
So where does hockey go from here? Clearly regional tournaments stimulate significant interest although, given the costs involved, are unsustainable on a regular basis. Given the demographics of the likely support hockey could receive, perhaps cricket and netball provide a basic template.
As it is an established mixed sport, a social evening league could prove popular, although it may well compete for players with those already involved in netball and other evening sports. However, perhaps a more sizeable support may well be generated within the sizeable Asian population, making cricket a more reasonable analogy.
Hockey would certainly benefit from finding a number of different grounds and sufficient players to support a weekend league, as has been established by the BCA. This is merely a short term measure - ultimately hockey needs to build beyond this to offer coaching in schools and, ideally, to create a school league. Without local competition among both adults and children the sport will not become a regular fixture on the curriculum and flourish in the long term.
However, the first problem the newly-appointed BHA will now have to address is how to follow this tournament with having set the bar so high.
