In September, the EHL have invited an U14 team from Ireland to the new ABN AMRO EHL U14 Girls competition in the Netherlands on the 11th and 12th April 2020. The directive from the EHF is that the team must have qualified through a national club competition. Unfortunately, only the top 6 nations in the EHL are invited, hence the reason we have not been asked to send a boys’ team.
We have invited the following teams from each province who have qualified through their U13 provincial competition in 2018/2019 season to play in a tournament this Sunday 8th December in UCD from 13.30 – 16.00:
Greenfields Hockey Club (Connacht)
Dromore Hockey Club (Ulster)
Corinthian Hockey Club (Leinster)
Catholic Institute (Munster)
Due to the timing of the invitation from the EHL, we were not able to plan for this format last season. There will be a clearer directive coming from Hockey Ireland soon. We are planning to have a bigger all-Ireland festival for U13 girls and boys in 2020. From this, the next group of U14 girls for the 2021 EHL competition will be decided and there will be an announcement soon of details of how to qualify for this.