THE seventh Belgotex Elite Club Challenge, the most prestigious club hockey tournament in South Africa, will get underway at the Riverside Hockey Club on Thursday, 11 July.
Competing teams will all be devising their plans to dethrone the current kings, Wanderers, who won both the men’s and women’s titles in 2018, mirroring the achievements of the hosts Riverside Hockey Club a year earlier.
Starting with the men, the Belgotex Elite Club Challenge, powered by Musco Lighting and hosted by Riverside Sports, will feature five sides competing for a spot in Saturday night’s final. The defending champions Wanderers will be there and feature a host of national hockey players in their squad. Having won the qualifier tournament earlier in the year, they will probably carry the expectation as favourites to the Durban North venue.
They will be joined by the hosts Riverside Hockey Club, Western Province Cricket Club, Old Eds and Beaulieu. Each club has a distinct brand of hockey and with so much contrast it will offer a fantastic challenge to the players and the coaches as well as a spectacle of hockey talent to the men.
The women’s tournament will feature one side less as the defending champions Wanderers will take on the Western Province Cricket Club as well as Riverside Hockey Club and Crusaders from Johannesburg for the ultimate title.
The hosts, Riverside Hockey Club will look to improve on their fourth placed finish in 2018 and try and mimic the 2017 squad that won the tournament in front of a delighted home crowd. While the Crusaders Johannesburg team will look to their army of national players to lead them in a fight for the title.
This year will also see young, up-and-coming players as well as Masters teams involved in an exciting 5s Challenge that will provide them with the chance to show off their skills in between the main matches of the tournament. Girls and boys aged from U11 to U14 and now Masters of 30 years and older can register and play as part of this hugely popular sporting spectacle on Durban’s doorstep.
Thursday’s action starts at 6.15pm with five matches on the opening evening. On Friday and Saturday, the morning session starts at 9am and the final game begins at 8pm on Saturday.
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