As winners of the Leinster indoor hockey championships last year, the Railway Union men’s hockey team will represent Ireland in the European Indoor Hockey Club Championships C Division next year. The tournament takes place on 17, 18 and 19 February 2006 in Gothenburg, Sweden and Railway Union will be competing against the national champions of Belgium, Finland, Turkey, Sweden and Wales.

This will be the second time that Railway Union has represented Ireland in a senior European club competition, having previously competed in the same competition in Brussels in 2001.

As part of the club’s preparations for competition at European level, the team, sponsored by Nissan Ireland, travelled to the Midlands Invitational Indoor Hockey Tournament in Birmingham, England at the start of January. The club has appointed the current National men’s outdoor coach and high performance director, David Passmore, as the squad’s coach.

In Birmingham, Railway Union defeated one of last year’s semi finalists, Kingston-upon-Hull, and Birmingham University in their group and narrowly lost out by four goals to three when they faced the winners of the previous year’s tournament, premiership team, Bournville.

In the classification matches on the Sunday, Railway Union were rocked by a four goal blitz early in the second half against top Scottish side, Dundee Wanderers, before losing 6-2 and came back from a five goal deficit in their final match to defeat top English side Cannock by ten goals to eight.

Overall, the team achieved a very credible finish of 7th place out of the 16 teams competing with Paul O’Brien leading the team’s scoring charts with nine goals followed by the team’s key forwards, David Jenkins (captain) with six goals and Brendan Parsons with five goals.

The Leinster league competition commenced on 15 January when Railway defeated Dublin University in their opening league match by nine goals to five. The National Basketball Arena played host to the Leinster men’s indoor cup on 22 January, which was won by Railway Union defeating Three Rock Rovers 8-7 in a closely contested semi final and YMCA in the final by nine goals to seven.

After slipping behind early in the game, Railway rallied strongly to draw level 5-5 at half time and four goals from Paul O’Brien and set-piece goals from Kenneth Carroll, Karl Kinch and David Jenkins ensured that the trophy would be heading back to Sandymount.

Railway Union ladies take hockey indoors
After a long number of years without ladies’ indoor hockey, Railway Union’s senior team have started attempts to revive the sport in the province.

The ladies’ team travelled to Birmingham in early January to compete in the Midlands Invitational Indoor Hockey Tournament. This was their first experience of tournament play indoors and they faced a stiff challenge against top premiership teams, Slough and Sutton Coldfield.

Four very tight games in their pool saw them unluckily lose out twice in the dying seconds. Theyoung Railway team also narrowly lost out to Sutton Coldfield by three goals to two and by two goals to nil against England’s European representatives, Slough.

A stronger performance on the Sunday, with Kate Dillon dominating midfield exchanges, saw Railway outplay and defeat Penarth, the Welsh National champions, by six goals to two. Goalscorers for the team were Kate Dillon with four goals, Sinead Walsh with two whilst Karen Clarke, Emma Smyth, Cathy Kenefick, Beth Maguire and Isobel Joyce chipped in with one goal apiece.

Ladies indoor hockey travelled to the National Basketball Arena on 22 January and the initial match saw Old Alexandra playing against Railway Union. Two early goals from Old Alex saw them leap into a 2-0 lead, but team captain Kate Dillon drove her Railway team back into the game with four goals as Railway dominated the remainder of the game, running in six unanswered goals and winning 6-2. Later in the day, Railway maintained their unbeaten run drawing 1-1 with Sandymount rivals, Pembroke Wanderers.

For more information on hockey at Railway Union contact: Mens hockey– Ger Dooley (gerard.b.dooley@aib.ie) Ladies hockey– Deirdre Reid (ladies_honsec@railwayunionhc.com) www.railwayunionhc.com