Sunday, April 18, 2010

Malaysian women grounded by European ash

THE Malaysian women’s hockey team, who were supposed to travel to Chile yesterday, were grounded by the volcanic ash from Iceland which has enveloped Europe and grounded air travel.
“We are in contact with the FIH (International Hockey Federation) and they told us that even Ireland and Scotland are unable to travel to Chile.
“We need at least five days to get acclimatised after travelling for more than 44 hours via Frankfurt to Chile and it looks like the FIH will have to reschedule the tournament fixtures,” said Malaysian Women’s Hockey Federation sec retary S. Shamala.
The women’s World Cup Qualifier is supposed to start on April 24-May 5 with Australia being the favourites to snatch the single ticket.
The FIH are expected to make an announcement on Monday.


UniKL on a lucky streak

UNIKL started off on a sloppy note, but made amends in the second half to thrash Petaling Jaya City Council (PJCC) 6-2 in Division One of the MHF-Milo-NSC Junior Hockey League yesterday.
Playing in front of a large following at the Kuala Lumpur HA Stadium, UniKl survived many early scares when they were swamped by PJCC strikers.
Sabri Mohamad (ninth) and Zulhairi Hashim (35th) gave UniKL a 2-0 lead going into the breather but both were opportunistic goals.
PJCC pulled one back two minutes after the restart, when Rifhan Azhar was on target, and the match looked like it was heading for an upset.
However, UniKL surged ahead with more lucky goals Syamim Yusoffrom (50th), Aminuddin Abu(55th, 58th) and Sabri Mohamad (67th).
The second PJCC goal was scored off a penalty stroke by Azuwan Mahiden in the 56th minute.
“We were lucky to take a 2-0 lead after the first half hooter blew, as PJCC were the attacking side while my players scored both the goals off a handful of breaks that we got.
“The 6-2 score does not do justice to the way PJCC played, and sometimes, a team needs a lucky break like this to continue their march,” said UniKL coach I. Vickneswaran.

RESULTS: Division One — Bukit Jalil 3 Anderson 1, Thunderbolt 8 Kelantan 1, UniKL 6 Petaling Jaya CC 2.
Division Two: Datuk Taha 2 Johor 2, Pahang 2 Matri 1.

DIVISION ONE

P W D L F A Pt
UNIKL 4 4 0 0 22 5 12
BP T’BOLT 3 3 0 0 17 3 9
BJSS 3 3 0 0 7 1 9
ANDERSON 5 3 0 2 11 12 9
BPSS JUNIORS 3 1 0 2 4 8 3
BJSS JUNIORS 3 0 1 2 2 7 1
KELANTAN 3 0 1 2 3 16 1
MWHA 3 0 0 3 4 9 0
PJCC 3 0 0 3 3 12 0

DIVISION TWO

P W D L F A Pt
TBSS 3 2 1 0 12 3 7
IPOH CC 3 2 1 0 7 2 7
SABAH 2 2 0 0 16 0 6
PAHANG 1 1 0 0 2 1 3
PG FREES 2 0 2 0 4 4 2
JOHOR 2 0 1 1 3 6 1
DATUK TAHA 3 0 1 2 2 11 1
MATRI 2 0 0 2 1 4 0
K. SELANGOR 2 0 0 2 0 16 0