Arundel leave for UK tour

Mike Hamilton Correspondent
ARUNDEL School’s hockey first team left for the United Kingdom in the early hours of yesterday on a two-week long pre-season tour of cities in southern England. The team had originally planned a tour of Washington DC in the United States.

However, the plans were changed when it was discovered there were few hockey fixtures taking place in the United States at this time of the year.

The team, comprising 17 players aged between 16 and 18, will play competitively against English clubs and schools and a university squad.

They will compete with teams in London, Exeter, Norwich, Bristol, Reading and Oxford before returning home on April 30.

Assistant coach Azgar Kerbelker said last year the team finished second in the league and sixth in the Golden Girls tournament.

He said he was confident that this tour would help the team perform better still in the coming season.

“The tour should make a difference. It is good exposure for the team and will definitely bring the team together.

“We have some great players in the team who are still young and quite active.

“We should improve in the coming season,” he said.

The United Kingdom tour was made possible with the help of sponsors such as NMB Bank, which donated $2 000 for the team’s kit for the tour.

The kit, which was tailor-made for the tour, comprises two long sleeved shirts for each player, a short-sleeved shirt, a pair of shorts and a cap.

Team captain Chido Ranganayi expressed the team’s gratitude for the sponsorship by NMB Bank.

“On behalf of the team I would like to thank NMB for its sponsorship. We are very grateful,” she said.