The spectacular indoor hockey road-trip makes its final leg this week with Thursday seeing the women’s EuroHockey Indoor Club Cup hit the boards in Alanya, Türkiye.
It will be the first time the competition has taken place since 2020 with Covid-19 and last year’s earthquake seeing the past three editions put out of action.
As such, it is a hugely anticipated event which does feature the reigning champions Düsseldorfer HC – albeit with 10 new faces from four years ago – who bring a star-studded line-up with Bundesliga MVP Mabel Brands chief among them.
They are in a group with top level first-time entrants Royal Racing Club de Bruxelles (Belgium), Buckingham (England) and Railway Union (Ireland) as well as 2017 bronze medalists Rotweiss Wettingen.
In Pool B, Türkiye’s Gaziantep Polisgücü will be looking to make an impact in front of a home crowd but they face big opposition with an MSC Sumchanka side filled with Ukraine internationals while SK Slavia Prague are the leading lights in Czechia.
Spain’s Sanse Complutense recently retained their national title while Scotland’s Watsonians know this city well, taking gold outdoors in 2023’s Club Challenge.
28 of the 29 games will be live streamed once again on www.eurohockeytv.org with action starting on Thursday morning at 8am (CET).
** To follow all the fixtures, results and stats, click here: https://eurohockey.altiusrt.com/competitions/326
Pool A
Buckingham (England)
Buckingham women begin their EuroHockey indoor campaign, boosted by an inspiring fundraising stint.
They were initially runners-up at last year’s England’s Super 6s championship but snapped up the opportunity to compete here after Repton decided against taking part.
As such, it will be their second trip to Alanya having finished in fifth place in 2022 in the women’s indoor Club Trophy.
To support their late inclusion, co-captain Lottie Porter helped set up a GoFundMe page after the team qualified for the tournament in September 2023 and was taken aback by the response.
“The hockey community have been absolutely amazing,” she said. “We set a £10,000 target, we hit it and it’s still going up. We are hugely grateful to everyone that has donated.
“We’re under no illusions, it’s going to be a really tough week for us. We’ve got the German side [Dusseldorfer] and the Belgian side [Royal Racing Club Bruxelles], who I think will have much more of an indoor season than we do in England so we’ll relish being underdogs.
“We don’t want to be like one hit wonders. We want to go again and we want indoor hockey to get more recognition by what we’re doing.”
Head coach Kevin Mayles is eager to see how Buckingham’s participation in the tournament can help propel indoor hockey to new heights back home.
“Our goal is also to think about how this tournament can help benefit our community in the North Buckinghamshire area,” he said.
“We’re geographically in an area that traditionally does not play a lot of indoor hockey, so we hope to help grow the sport here.”
They travel, though, without the services of Olympian Sally Walton who sustained an injury which rules her out of action. They reached the English semi-finals this season.
Düsseldorfer HC (Germany)
It is strange to think that Düsseldorfer HC are the reigning champions with their 2020 success in the Hague the last time this tournament has taken place.
Stranger still, just two of their panel are back to defend the title with captain Pia Lhotak and Lilly Stoffelsma linking the two campaigns. Since then, they have added the brilliant Dutch international Mabel Brands to their line-up – she was named the best player of the German championship – and is a potential star turn this week.
Elisa Gräve was part of the German indoor side that won Euro gold with Lhotak and Maike Schaunig also in the line-up, showing some of their power.
They reached the final of the German championship but were only denied the title with the very last touch of normal time in the final. They led Mannheimer HC before a final second corner from Charlotte Hendrix sent the game to shoot-out where MHC prevailed.
They are going for a third title having also won the competition in 2016 in Minsk.
Railway Union (Ireland)
Railway Union are sending an experienced squad for their first time competing at this level and only the second Irish club team after Randalstown between 1990 and 1994.
The squad contains four current Irish international indoor players and two indoor development squad and a previous senior international. Captain Orla Fox, has 34 Irish indoor caps. The Patton sisters, Orla the Irish captain, and Sarah have 33 and 28 Irish indoor caps respectively, with Irish and Railway goalkeeper Emma Buckley having 23 Irish indoor caps.
Amy Benson and Matilde Errico play on the Irish indoor development squad, with Amy having 29 senior Irish indoor caps.
Coach Gareth Myburgh is the Irish indoor manager and Irish indoor development squad coach. Holly Jenkinson, a previous Irish indoor international with 5 caps, is assistant coach.
This is Railway’s 5th participation in the Eurohockey indoor club competition – winning gold at the Challenge event in Bratislava, Slovakia in 2011, silver in Porto, Portugal in 2020, playing in the Trophy event in Alanya in 2022, and winning silver in the Trophy event in Cambrai, France in 2023.
In Alanya in 2022, the team played the entire tournament with only six players; Fox has played in all 5 of these competitions.
In preparation for this event Railway Union won their provincial indoor tournament and the national indoor competition, for the fifth year running.
Captain Orla Fox said: “We are really looking forward to playing in Alanya, and have fond memories of the Trophy tournament here in 2022. We have prepared well and feel we are continually developing as a squad.
“We are introducing young up and coming players, such as Mati Errico and Micaela Sanderson, to the squad and we hope to represent Ireland well at the tournament.”
Railway Union has 2 sets of sisters playing in the team: Orla and Sarah Patton, and Jenny and Ailish Long.
Royal Racing Club Bruxelles (Belgium)
Royal Racing Club de Bruxelles have a number of legends of the Belgian game in their line-up with Jill Boon (302 caps outdoors) and Anouk Raes (281 caps) among the big guns along with indoor international goalkeeper Marie Goethals de Mude while Red Panther France de Mot is another important figure.
Their star did not shine as bright in the Belgian indoor league this season following their championship success in 2023 with Boon saying of their panel: “We had a lot of injuries, girls who left for one reason or another [including Noa de Kerchove playing in the Pro League].
“In the semi-final, we came across a full and super organized Waterloo Ducks. The team from Germany and Spain no doubt, will be really strong. We will do everything against these teams to maintain our position.”
It will be the club’s first ever appearance in a women’s European indoor competition.
Rotweiss Wettingen (Switzerland)
The Swiss club recently retained their national title with a 2-1 final win over HC Olten thanks to a pair of goals from Ria Müller in the decider.
The side features sisters Tamara (captain) and Elena Trösch and Raffaela Triebold who were all part of the Swiss side that finished in eighth place in the EuroHockey Indoor Championships.
This will be their fifth appearance overall in the EuroHockey Indoor Club Cup with their best result coming in 2017 when they finished with bronze.
That aforementioned trio of players – along with goalkeeper Fleurina Steffen – all played in 2017 – to bring the experience to the table to guide a panel which also features five teenagers, including 15-year-olds Ambra Brunhold and Tabea Schorno.
Pool B
MSC Sumchanka (Ukraine)
Sumy-based MSC Sumchanka has been promoting hockey since being first organised under the Dynamo Sports Association in 1996 before taking on their current name in 2007.
It is effectively a side made up of senior and Under-21 international players with nine of the Ukraine side who played in the European Championships in Berlin making the swift transition after a busy start to 2024 which has taken in the Olympic qualifiers and the Hockey 5s World Cup, too.
Key among them are Karyna Leonova, the ace goalscorer and the hugely experienced captain Kateryna Shokalenko. Youngsters like Anastasiia Shyshyna, Kateryna Popoova and Anna Tanchenko will also be key figures.
For the club, they won a silver medal in 2009 and are double bronze medalists (in 2015 and 2020) in this competition in addition to their 22 Ukraine national indoor titles.
“After the start of the war in February 2022, thanks to the support of our large European hockey family, we were able to train and prepare for tournaments safely,” says coach Svitlana Makaieva.
“We continue training and playing hockey productively even in times of difficulty. Our aim is to show good results in competitions in Europe.
“We have quite some changes in our indoor team, comparing to the last two years, due to the ongoing war and various circumstances. Some of the club’s players were forced to leave the country because of the war and now they play in the leading European clubs of Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and England. Now “Sumchanka” – it’s a mix of young talent coming up and some experienced indoor players.”
“Our team had a busy schedule in the last months. Most of the girls are part of outdoor, indoor and Hockey 5’s squads. They were very intense months, psychologically and physically for the players and staff.
“Indoor hockey is a priority sport for us. In the conditions the training takes place, of course, it would be great to get the highest results and a prize. This year it will be more difficult for the players of the main squad, since some of the players are in Europe and young players added to the team, but we are ready for new challenges and victories.”
Gaziantep Polisgücü (Türkiye)
Host club Gaziantep Polisgücü make history this week as the first Turkish club to play in the top division of the women’s EuroHockey Indooor Club Cup. It follows their victory in this same hall in 2022 in the Club Trophy when they outdid the likes of Slavia Prague, Buckingham and Railway Union
The Turkish side did relinquish their national title last month at the hands of the Aegean Stars in the final but they do bring lots of strong players to the table. Fatma Songul Gültekin scored an incredible 77 goals in the Turkish Super League while Perihan Çinar is their midfield dynamo who also pops up with plenty of goals (she was top scorer at the Hockey 5s Euros last summer, too).
The side is captained by Meryem Oymak who had a Turkish finals weekend to remember; she was proposed too during the event by fellow Gaziantep player Celal Aydin.
Like their men’s side last week, they are bolstered by a pair of Argentine players in Martina Navarro and Viktoria Amaya.
Sanse Complutense (Spain)
Sanse Complutense have been a central figure in the return to form of the Spanish international indoor sides with their young guns proving their worth on the international stage.
The Madrid club have a trio of their national line-up involved this week with Sofía Alcaide, Sara Carmona and Paula Jiménez. All are still Under-21; indeed, only two players are over 23 in their panel, showing their prospects for the future.
Both Jiménez and Alcaide were on the mark as they won the Spanish indoor crown once again in January in a 3-2 final win over Club de Campo de Madrid.
This will be their first women’s European indoor competition having reached the Euro Hockey League semi-finals outdoors last year. They take over the mantle from Club de Campo who were Spain’s only indoor representative in Europe since 2012.
SK Slavia Prague (Czechia)
Half the side come into the competition on a high having secured a World Cup spot for Czechia at the recent EuroHockey Indoor Championship in Berlin and they look like a well balanced line-up for this event.
They have experience in the likes of Jindřiška Neusser, Kamila Dukátová, Renata Capouchová and key midfielder Adéla Lehovocová mixed with rising talents like Natálie Hájková. The 21-year-old top scored for her nation in Berlin with seven goals, marking her out as a crucial figure for their chances as is captain Nikol Babická.
This will be their ninth appearance in the top level competition, earning bronze medals in both 2014 (Cambrai) and 2016 (Minsk) while they missed out on third place in 2015 with a shoot-out defeat at the hands of MSC Sumchanka.
Watsonians (Scotland)
Watsonians’ head coach Keith Smith is under no illusions about the task ahead for his charges this week in Alanya
“We`ve got a really tough group – Slavia, Sumchanka and Gaziantep supply almost all the players to the Czech, Ukrainian and Turkish national teams respectively, and each are fresh off competing in the EuroHockey Indoor Championships.
“Complutense are also very strong and have some really talented individuals, including a number of players in the Spain squad that just missed out on bronze, too.
“Given that, we`re under no illusions as to the fact it`s going to be a huge challenge to finish 3rd or 4th in our group – and then win a crossover – just to stay in the top division. But we`re looking forward to play that standard of opposition and test ourselves, and knowing that we play in Europe again indoor next season is a real incentive to make the most of the experience.”
Watsonians did retain the Scottish indoor championship in a shoot-out with Clydesdale Western. So Watsonians are playing for their own European future – good incentive.
Watsonians have match winners of their own in top scorer Sarah Jamieson along with Emily Dark from both open play and penalty corners, and others – so the Edinburgh side pack a punch of their own.
