Ferrara’s HC Bondeno welcomes men’s EuroHockey Indoor Club hockey for the first time with the Challenge I getting underway on Friday morning.
Eight teams are in the mix with the hosts in Pool A with Bulgaria’s FHC Slavia 1921, Slovakia’s KPH Rača, and Lithuania’s Vilnius Žuvedra.
Pool B has Cardiff & Met from Wales, Slovenia’s HK Triglav Predanovci, Finland’s HT85, and Hungary’s Épitõk.
** Follow all the scores from the event here: https://eurohockey.altiusrt.com/competitions/325
Men’s EuroHockey Indoor Club Challenge (Ferrara, Czechia – Friday, February 16 to Sunday, February 18)
Pool A
FHC Slavia 1921 (Bulgaria)
FHC Slavia 1921 are keen to build on seventh place finishes in the third tier in both 2020 and 2023. They travel with a panel that includes nine players over 30 so there is a bank of knowledge in their line-up, hoping them to guide youngsters Kaloyan Atanasov and Martin Momchilov.
Dimitar Malakov, Daniel Valyavicharski, Radoslav Grozkov, Milush Stoyanov have played in both of those prior runs to seventh. They also feature Dutchman Merijn de Baare.
HC Bondeno (Italy)
HC Bondeno are hoping to have a week to savour in their club’s first ever European indoor club campaign, hosting the event in Ferrara.
Their key men are internationals Alessandro Muzzioli (18 goals) and Marcello Succi (12) who, between them, scored 30 times in their silver medal run in the EuroHockey Indoor Championship II-B in Budapest.
They were, however, dethroned as club champions with Valchisone taking the title this year with Bondeno third in the regular season standings.
KPH Rača (Slovakia)
KPH Rača are looking to build on their third place finish in Lousada last year at this same level and push for promotion to the second tier for the first time.
They have an experienced side with seven of the players either 30 or older. This includes Tomas Romanec who has also played Euro competitions for Austria’s Post SV while Adrián Augustinič and Matej Jelačič the man to watch for goals. The former scored seven last year in Puconci in 2022 while the latter got 10 in 2023 in Bratislava.
Vilnius Žuvedra HC (Lithuania)
A very youthful Lithuanian side are all looking forward to their first indoor campaign for their club with six teenagers forming the bulk of their squad. Five of the line-up were involved for their international side who played in Paredes in Championship II-A – goalkeeper Nedas Razma, Povilas Lakštauskas, Andržej Burkot, captain Darius Lopato and Rafal Stankevič.
Pool B
Cardiff & Met (Wales)
Cardiff & Met are playing in their sixth EuroHockey Indoor club competition in their current guise with forerunners Cardiff Hockey Club and Cardiff University having played at this level, too.
Of those recent events, their best finish was in 2020 in Varna-Kamchia, Bulgaria in Challenge I. The club is buzzing at the moment following their outdoor 2023 win in the Division 1 North league to get promoted to the England Hockey Premier Division for the first time.
At the end of 2022-2023 season, they completed the quadruple, taking the Hockey Wales Indoor Welsh Cup, the Hockey Wales Welsh Cup, Euro Hockey Outdoor Club Trophy I and were the England Hockey Division 1 North Champions.
In the last 15 years, they have won four national league titles, ten Welsh Cup indoor and outdoor titles and they got a boost in competitive terms this year by taking part in the recently re-introduced South Wales Indoor League, that has been re-introduced this year.
HK Triglav Predanovci (Slovenia)
The Slovenian champions are another returning side from 2023 in Lousada were they ended up in fifth place. They will be trying to get some revenge over Épitõk who defeated them 3-1 and deny them a place in the top half of the competition.
Their panel this year has a large group with 20 caps to their name like Alen Balaž, Davorin Škrilec, captain Tadej Mikola, Nejc Potokar, Alan Nemec, Zan Zrinski and Mitja Dsuban so they have been around the circuit to know the scenario.
HT 85 (Finland)
Hockey Team 85 are back in European competition for the first time in 17 years to represent Finland for a ninth time overall – their best was third in the Challenge in 2006.
This year’s team does have prior experience, though, with Santeri Määttänen playing for both ABC and Klippari in previous years while Henri Ruohonen and Santeri Karjalainen played with Klippari. Aron Lehmus, meanwhile, was with ABC in Lousada at this level last year.
Épitõk (Hungary)
Épitõk will be looking to go a little better than 2023 in Lousada when they finished in fourth place overall in what was their 11th Euro indoor appearance.
Nine of last year’s line-up returns this year for this competition while five of the team played two weeks ago in Budapest in Championship II-B where Hungary ended fourth.
Those are Marton Wesselényi (captain), goalkeepers Daniel Deli and Balázs Petõvári, Gergely Papp, Zsigmond Szóga.
