Scottish Hockey

Richard`s occasion

04 January 2012

The inaugural Richard Docherty Indoor Cup, to be held at the Engage Sports Centre at Edinburgh`s Napier University over this weekend, takes on an all-embracing role, but most importantly it is a chance for Richard`s family, the Inverleith club and the hockey community within Scotland to pay tribute to the 27-year-old who tragically passed away on 27 June 2010.  

It is also a chance for the Scotland squad and Subway indoor national league champions Inverleith to hone their preparations for their respective European nations and club tournaments over the next couple of months.  Finally, it is a chance for the Scottish public, for whom entry is free, to gaze at the skills of top level Continental opposition in the form of Dutch outfit HC RGD and Grossflottberger from the German Bundesliga, and not since the nostalgic days of the Glenfiddich International Tournament a couple of decades ago has such quality been on view in Scotland.

Inverleith, Grove Menzieshill and Grossflottbecker contest one pool while the other group is made up of the Scottish squad, under the guise of Highland Jaguars, HC RGD from the Netherlands and the Welsh side Celtic Panthers.  The top two in each pool will contest Sunday`s semi-finals, with the gala final due to start at 2pm.

Inverleith, who broke the 17 year Tayside monopoly of the indoor crown, won the championship for the first time in the club`s history last season with an undefeated record and the loss of only two points.  Now the Edinburgh side makes its European debut next month with the Club Championships being held in Edinburgh, at the same Napier venue on 17-19 February.

"I will probably be minus a couple of players to the Scotland squad, I also have a couple of players unavailable, so this provides me with another opportunity to use other players in the squad," said Stuart Neave, Inverleith`s coach.     "The Richard Docherty tournament is an excellent situation to play high quality games going into the second half of the season.  Our group games will provide two difficult games against a well organised Menzieshill side and a good German league team."

Inevitably, Neave`s objective is to reach the final, as his charges did in the recent Grove Menzieshill tournament, only to lose 5-3 to the Caledonian Cougars, masquerading as the Scotland squad.

Inverleith will open the tournament with a clash against rivals Grove Menzieshill, the winner taking a giant leap towards a semi-final place.  The Taysiders won the recent league encounter 2-1, Michael Ross from the spot and Chris Wilson on target for Dundonians, Chris Duncan replying for Inverleith.  The Edinburgh side were well on top at Menzieshill`s own event with a comfortable 11-2 victory, but the latter were short of eight squad players that day.

Tayside legend Bruce Cuthill again leads the 17 times Scottish champions Menzieshill, but the prior claims of the Scotland call have again ravaged his squad.   "With so many in the Scotland squad, we have not set any targets but will use this tournament as experience for the younger players.  The opposition will be hard to beat, but our team is improving with each game they play."

It is generally assumed that Grossflottbecker, a side sprinkled with gold medallists from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, will be too much for both Scottish sides and the team from Hamburg will cruise into the semi-finals.

The class act in the other pool should be the Dutch side HC RGD, a side specially raised for the occasion by Laurence Docherty, Richard`s older brother, who now lives and plays in the Netherlands.  This side is awash with international talent, but pride of place must go to the legendary Taco Van der Hornet and Floris Jan Bovelander, between them they have 456 international caps and three Olympic Games with a gold and bronze medal to show for their efforts. 

The game of this pool is certain to be RGD`s encounter with the Highland Jaguars, the Scotland squad in build-up mode for the European Nations Championships in Lignano (Italy) at the end of next week.  

Billy McPherson, Scotland head coach, said:  "The Richard Docherty tournament is very important, we made progress last week at the Menzieshill event and we would like to do the same this weekend.  We would like to win the tournament, this would help for Europe, but all the players and teams are of the highest quality."

The Welsh side Celtic Panthers are also preparing for the European Nations Championships, but they will have to show considerable improvement from the Menzieshill tournament where they finished last, without gaining a single point. 

Play starts at 10 am on Saturday at Napier University`s Engage Sports Centre in Sighthill with the six pool matches during the course of the day, the semi-finals are on Sunday again starting at 10am and the final is scheduled to commence at 2 pm.