The Guyana Hockey Board (GCB) has cancelled this year’s hosting of its annual Diamond Mineral Water International Indoor Hockey Festival, due to a discrepancy regarding the floors of the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) where the event was expected to be held.
In a press release yesterday the board stated that the much needed repairs done recently at the CASH, which included replacing a large area of the playing surface, had left the floor uneven. According to the release, this is because the new floorboards sit a bit higher than the old ones.
According to the GHB President, Philip Fernandes, while the newly-installed area of the floor has greatly improved the playing surface, it poses a dangerous risk to the hockey players as it causes the ball to fly out of control.
“Wherever the new boards meet the old ones, there is a ridge that makes the hockey ball fly into the air as it passes across,” said Fernandes. “This makes it unsafe to play hockey and of course our players’ safety has to take precedence over anything else.”
As such the board has called a close to its December 2 – 5 event since it is not expected that the setback will be rectified in time for the staging of the festival.
The release also stated that while Fernandes applauded the efforts of the Ministry of Sport to improve the surface, he is disappointed that the timing coincided with the international festival. He, however, is optimistic that if the rest of the floor is completed early in the New Year, then next year’s festival will have a new and improved floor.
“The newly-installed area of the floor looks good and is much flatter than the old one. This means that upon completion, the new floor will have removed one of our big impediments to attracting European teams who will not travel to compete on a floor that is uneven,” Fernandes said.
And since this was expected to be the final tournament of the year, GHB Secretary Gregory Sills has announced that the 2010 hockey season has now been called to a close. Sills expressed his disappointment and that of the local hockey-playing fraternity in the cancellation.
He advised that foreign teams should remain optimistic about visiting for the 2011 staging of the festival and thanked the sponsors of the tournament for their understanding on the matter.
This year’s festival would have been the sixth to be staged by the GHB and, according to the release, it had become the tournament that attracts the largest foreign contingent in the region.
