2006 Guyana International Indoor Tournament

November 23-25, 2006 - Guyana

Report by Derek Sandison, Member of the PAHF Competitions Committee

Adobe Acrobat version

Congratulations to Guyana Hockey Board (GHB) for successfully hosting the 3rd International Indoor Hockey Festival held at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall from 23rd to 26th November. This tournament is becoming recognized as one of the premier indoor events held within the PAHF region. The tournament provided for separate divisions for Men, Women and Veterans Men. Club sides from Guyana were joined by teams from Trinidad in all divisions and New York and Toronto in the men's division.

Prior to the tournament, I conducted two workshops, one for umpires and one for technical officials. The workshops were well attended and participants had the opportunity of putting their learning into practice during the tournament. The local umpires also had the benefit of the presence of Susie Gomes from Trinidad as the Umpires' Managers during the tournament. As well as taking on a considerable umpiring workload herself, Susie assisted with umpire coaching and appointments throughout the tournament and did this with great enthusiasm and encouragement for the developing umpires.

The Cliff Anderson Sports Hall is a large multi-sport complex and, like most facilities world-wide where indoor hockey is played, has some limitations related to its specific use for hockey. However, these limitations were dealt with readily and the teams and officials adapted to the any idiosyncrasies in good spirit and the calibre of play was generally good.

With prize money for the winners and the generous hospitality of the hosts, including airport pick-up, billeting and an abundance of social events, GHB has created a formula that can attract teams that are dedicated to a good brand of indoor hockey.

There are many things that GHB has achieved with this event, that are encouraging for PAHF, and shows their ability to:

  • Attract a solid list of sponsors who are committed to long term relationships
  • Fill a stadium with knowledgeable and enthusiastic fans
  • Generate media coverage in press, radio, television
  • Attract teams from out of the country
  • Provide a platform for developing local umpires and technical officials
  • Generally continue to show resurgence for hockey in Guyana.

In summary, there is every reason to believe that Guyana is capable of hosting a fully sanctioned international PAHF indoor tournament in the near future.

Finally, on behalf of GHB, many thanks to PAHF Development Committee for financial assistance in this project.

Sincerely,

Derek Sandison, Member, PAHF Competitions Committee