Over the weekend of Fri 6th – Sun 8th September, the Isle of Man will be hosting the 5th Inter-Island Hockey tournament. This bi-annual event was first hosted by Guernsey back in 2005 and the original Islands competing for the Men’s and Ladies Inter-Island trophies were Bermuda, Guernsey, Isle of Man and Jersey. In 2009, Orkney Ladies entered the tournament for the first time and have attended every tournament since.
The IOM have entered two strong squads into this years’ tournament and the IOM Ladies will be looking to retain their trophy after winning the Inter-Island tournament in 2011. Hosted by Guernsey, they enjoyed a 2-1 win in the final against Jersey with goals coming from Kim Carney and Andrea Kneen. Kim is captain of this year’s squad and has a mix of experience combined with some new faces, including debuts for Sosie Cox, Hannah Leece and Voirrey Baker. There are also Inter-Island tournament debuts for Imogen Manning, Laura Atkinson and Christina Kermeen. The Ladies squad will once again be managed by Lesley Shimmin and coached by Jon Whiting.
The Men’s squad are competing in the tournament after having an excellent run in the recent England Hockey Men’s County Championships, held in May. The team qualified for finals weekend after a solid display in the group stage but were defeated in the semi-final of the C division by a strong Gloucestershire side. The squad is managed by Russ Miller, coached by Karl Moore and there are Inter-Island debuts for Greg Turner, Ste Lowe, Alex Bell and Matty Grice. Captain, Greg Miller, will be looking to his squad for a strong performance on home soil and a return of the Men’s Inter-Island trophy which the IOM Men’s team last won in 2007.
The tournament gets underway on Friday evening at the NSC with the IOM Men’s team playing Bermuda at 6.45pm and the IOM Ladies team also playing their Bermudan counterparts at 8.05pm. The action continues on Saturday with hockey on both pitches at the NSC and the QEII. The 3rd/4th play-off matches and finals take place at the NSC on Sunday with the Ladies final scheduled for 2.30pm and the Men’s final scheduled for 4.00pm.
For more information about the tournament and a full fixture list, please visit the Manx Hockey Association website – www.manxhockey.org or visit the tournament Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/InterIslandHockeyTournament
IOM Men’s Squad
Will Margot
Greg Turner
Jamie Brown
Steven Crowe
Matty Grice
Conor Byrne
Gareth Morris
Greg Miller (Capt)
Karl Moore
Phil Goddard
Rob Mylchreest
Neil Crowe
Andy Vernon-Browne
Gareth Craig
Steven Lowe
Andy Bridson
Alex Bell
Andy Whiting
IOM Ladies Squad
Voirrey Baker
Samantha Jordan
Laura Atkinson
Kirsty Bowley
Sarah Blackman
Katie Errock
Christina Kermeen
Sosie Cox
Hannah Leece
Kim Carney (Capt)
Zoe Carney
Imogen Manning
Louise Slater
Nicola Cain
Jen Turner
Sarah Breen
Karmina Kovanda
Kirsty Cooper
