T&T Hock­ey Board club Queen’s Park Crick­et Club (QPCC) won the Men’s Open and Over-35 di­vi­sions, while George Unit­ed and Hik­ers clinched the Women’s and Men’s Over-45 crowns when the Di­a­mond Min­er­al Wa­ter In­ter­na­tion­al Hock­ey Fes­ti­val con­clud­ed at the Na­tion­al Gym­na­si­um on Man­dela Av­enue in Guyana on Sun­day. In the men’s open sec­tion, Queen’s Park squeaked past the Toron­to Li­ons 7-6. 

For QPCC, na­tion­al coach Dar­ren Cowie, who re­cent­ly came out of in­ter­na­tion­al re­tire­ment to make him­self avail­able for se­lec­tion to the FIH In­door Hock­ey World Cup next year in Croa­t­ia, tal­lied a five-goal blitz in the third, sixth, 12th, 28th, and 39th min­utes. Jor­dan Vieira and Do­minic Young net­ted in the fourth and 18th min­utes apiece. 

For the los­er, Sat­nam Dosan­jh bagged a dou­ble in the 21st and 29th min­utes, while De­vohn Teix­eira, Navdeep Gill, Joshua Mi­ran­da, and Jonathan Roberts scored in the ninth, 10th, 36th, and 37th min­utes, re­spec­tive­ly.

In the Vet­er­ans’ Di­vi­sion, QPCC al­so got the bet­ter of Toron­to Li­ons, a team filled with past and present na­tion­als, win­ning 4-3 to bring their win­ning purse to just around TT$28,000. 

QPCC al­so took home in­di­vid­ual awards in the form of “Best Goal­keep­er” in the men’s Vet­er­ans Di­vi­sion in Reiza Ho­sein, while Jor­dan Viera copped the over­all “Most Valu­able Play­er” award in the Men’s Di­vi­sion.

Over­all, QPCC played un­beat­en in ten match­es be­tween the Vet­er­ans’ and Men’s Open Di­vi­sion teams over the four days of com­pe­ti­tion and boast­ed a team of sev­en na­tion­al train­ing squad mem­bers for the up­com­ing Croa­t­ia WC in Cowie, Young, Viera, Nicholas Siu Butt, Aidan De Gannes, and Arielle Bowen. 

Club coach Raphael Govia, speak­ing on re­turn from the tour­na­ment yes­ter­day, stat­ed that he was very im­pressed with the com­mit­ment on the court from the play­ers.

Govia was al­so full of praise for the younger play­ers who got their first taste of in­ter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion, name­ly, Aidan Elias, Akanan­ton Richard­son, and Siu Butt, with all three play­ers al­so be­ing mem­bers of the na­tion­al in­door train­ing World Cup team, which is coached by Govia as well.