Season starts this week
All eight senior teams at Banbridge Hockey Club will be in action this weekend as the 2014-2015 hockey season starts for all leagues this week. The season has already started positively for the club with success for both the Men’s and Ladies 1st XI teams to date in their opening fixtures with the Men 1st XI comfortably beating Kilkeel 5-0 last Monday night in the Kirk Cup and the Ladies winning both of their opening Senior Cup games with 1-0 wins against both Dungannon and Victorians.
The Men’s 1st XI started their Premier League campaign on Saturday playing against old rivals Lisnagarvey away at Hillsborough Road. In what was always going to be a close battle for the points it was Bann that came out on top winning 4-3 in a thrilling game. A Stevie Dowds hatrick and a goal from new signing Neil Gilmore secured the three points for Banbridge in the tightly fought contest which gave Bann the perfect start to the Premier League.
Midweek fixtures will continue this week for the Men’s and Ladies 1st XIs as they continue in the GOC Estate Agents Kirk Cup and Senior Cup respectively and then they will both play league games on Saturday at Havelock.
The Men’s and Ladies 2nd, 3rd and 4th XI teams will start their season at the weekend all with league matches. The Men’s 2nds will see the likes of Colin Dowds and Simon Magown stepping down from the 1st XI to bolster and add considerable experience to this side and they will start their league campaign on Friday night away against Cookstown. The newly promoted Ladies 2nds face a tough opening game in Junior Leaugue 1 away to Ards 2nds who were promoted alongside the Bann girls last season and are a strong side. However the new batch of 2nds players coached by Dane Ward have proved in pre-season friendlies that they are more than capable of playing at this level. The Men’s 3rds will play Lisnagarvey 4ths at Havelock while the Men’s 4ths will travel away to North Down. The Ladies 3rds will make the short journey up the A1 to play Dromore while the 4ths start their season playing North Down at the Academy.
Please note that due to the Kirk Cup match at Havelock on Tuesday night, the Men’s 2-4s will train on Thursday night from 8.30-9.45pm
Fixtures this week:
Tuesday 16th
Men’s 1s v Cookstown at Havelock at 7.45pm
Wednesday 17th
Ladies 1s v Knock at Havelock at 7.45pm
Friday 19th
Men’s 2s v Cookstown away at 8.00pm
Saturday 20th
Men’s
1s v Harlequins at 2.30pm at Havelock
3s v Lisnagarvey 4s at 4.00pm at Havelock
4s v North Down away at 4.00pm
Ladies
1s v North Down at 1.00pm at Havelock
2s v Ards 2 away at 2.30pm
3s v Dromore 4 away at 2.30pm
4s v North Down 5 at 2.30pm at Banbridge Academy