The curtains will go up in the fifth annual Diamond Mineral Water Indoor Hockey Festival this evening with four matches at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Reigning national Indoor men’s champions Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) will square off with recently dethroned Old Fort in the curtain raiser at 17:30 hours that will set the stage for four days of intense competition featuring some of the leading teams in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada and the United States.
Both teams have old scores to settle and will be relying heavily on their experienced players with Old Fort expected to feature Canadian International Jonathan Roberts, Aderemi Simon, Jason De Santos, John Abrahams, Askofu Simon and Wayne St. Jules.
The Bourda side is expected to include Devin Hooper, Dwayne Scott, Chris Xavier and Gregory Garraway.
The visiting Canadian women’s side GOA will face reigning women’s champions GCC in the second game of the evening.
The women’s competition has boiled down to three teams following the late withdrawal of Trinidadian sides Raiders and Malvern.
The action in the Veteran category will also feature two Guyanese teams with Carib Degenerates, last year’s bronze medalists battling newcomers GCC Die Hards.
The final game of the evening with feature defending men’s champions Hikers against Notre Dame of Trinidad and Tobago.
Ten matches will be played on Friday to be followed by the official opening ceremony billed for the GCC pavilion on New Garden Street.
The teams competing in the men’s competition are Malvern, Notre Dame and Paradise of Trinidad and Tobago, Old Fort, GCC, Hikers and Western Dragons of West Demerara.
The ladies competition will be a three-team affair with GCC, GOA and Hikers in contention, while the Veterans division will feature Fatima and Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force from the Twin Island Republic, Old Old Fort of the United States, GCC Die Hards and Degenerates.
The winning teams in both male and ladies competition will cart off US$ 1000 each while US$500 will be presented to the winners of the Veteran category.
The main sponsors of the Festival are Demerara Distillers Ltd., producers of Diamond Mineral Water and Ansa McAl Ltd. distributors of Carib Beer.
The Festival will end on Sunday with matches scheduled for two sessions daily.