Three Rock Rovers arrived in Mannheim Germany today to represent Irish Hockey at the Men’s European Indoor Hockey Trophy over the weekend. The indoor team from Balinteer’s journey has been a geographical and emotional odyssey. The team is relishing playing at such a high club level in a country which is the cradle of European and World indoor hockey.
That journey has included winning five of the last six National Irish titles. In European competition the club got promoted in 2018 from the fourth division in Tbilisi, Georgia. The subsequent year the side gained immediate promotion from the Third division in Oslo, Norway finishing in second place.
The Trophy level was a Considerable step up in Alanya, Turkey 2020 but Three Rock managed results in their final two games to finish in sixth place, one behind the Dutch National champions.
Today Three Rock are playing in the opening game of the tournament against the Czech representatives SK Slavia Prague and are facing Dutch outdoor and indoor 2022 National Champions Pinoké in the afternoon. Both of those sides contain players who represented their countries in the recent indoor European and World Cups
Captain Ross Canning, Jody Hosking, and James Walker are capped International Indoor players and they are backed up by veterans Alistair Haughton, Shane Davey and Eckhart Geyer.
Live scoring here: https://eurohockey.altiusrt.com/competitions/300
Live viewing here: http://www.eurohockeytv.org/