Richard`s occasion

The inaugural Richard Docherty Indoor Cup, to be held at
the Engage Sports Centre at Edinburgh`s Napier University over this
weekend, takes on an all-embracing role, but most importantly it is
a chance for Richard`s family, the Inverleith club and the hockey
community within Scotland to pay tribute to the 27-year-old who
tragically passed away on 27 June 2010.  

It is also a chance for the Scotland squad and Subway indoor
national league champions Inverleith to hone their preparations for
their respective European nations and club tournaments over the
next couple of months.  Finally, it is a chance for the
Scottish public, for whom entry is free, to gaze at the skills of
top level Continental opposition in the form of Dutch outfit HC RGD
and Grossflottberger from the German Bundesliga, and not since the
nostalgic days of the Glenfiddich International Tournament a couple
of decades ago has such quality been on view in Scotland.

Inverleith, Grove Menzieshill and Grossflottbecker contest one
pool while the other group is made up of the Scottish squad, under
the guise of Highland Jaguars, HC RGD from the Netherlands and the
Welsh side Celtic Panthers.  The top two in each pool will
contest Sunday`s semi-finals, with the gala final due to start at
2pm.

Inverleith, who broke the 17 year Tayside monopoly of the indoor
crown, won the championship for the first time in the club`s
history last season with an undefeated record and the loss of only
two points.  Now the Edinburgh side makes its European debut
next month with the Club Championships being held in Edinburgh, at
the same Napier venue on 17-19 February.

“I will probably be minus a couple of players to the Scotland
squad, I also have a couple of players unavailable, so this
provides me with another opportunity to use other players in the
squad,” said Stuart Neave, Inverleith`s
coach.     “The Richard Docherty tournament is
an excellent situation to play high quality games going into the
second half of the season.  Our group games will provide two
difficult games against a well organised Menzieshill side and a
good German league team.”

Inevitably, Neave`s objective is to reach the final, as his
charges did in the recent Grove Menzieshill tournament, only to
lose 5-3 to the Caledonian Cougars, masquerading as the Scotland
squad.

Inverleith will open the tournament with a clash against rivals
Grove Menzieshill, the winner taking a giant leap towards a
semi-final place.  The Taysiders won the recent league
encounter 2-1, Michael Ross from the spot and Chris Wilson on
target for Dundonians, Chris Duncan replying for Inverleith. 
The Edinburgh side were well on top at Menzieshill`s own event with
a comfortable 11-2 victory, but the latter were short of eight
squad players that day.

Tayside legend Bruce Cuthill again leads the 17 times Scottish
champions Menzieshill, but the prior claims of the Scotland call
have again ravaged his squad.   “With so many in the
Scotland squad, we have not set any targets but will use this
tournament as experience for the younger players.  The
opposition will be hard to beat, but our team is improving with
each game they play.”

It is generally assumed that Grossflottbecker, a side sprinkled
with gold medallists from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, will be too
much for both Scottish sides and the team from Hamburg will cruise
into the semi-finals.

The class act in the other pool should be the Dutch side HC RGD,
a side specially raised for the occasion by Laurence Docherty,
Richard`s older brother, who now lives and plays in the
Netherlands.  This side is awash with international talent,
but pride of place must go to the legendary Taco Van der Hornet and
Floris Jan Bovelander, between them they have 456 international
caps and three Olympic Games with a gold and bronze medal to show
for their efforts. 

The game of this pool is certain to be RGD`s encounter with the
Highland Jaguars, the Scotland squad in build-up mode for the
European Nations Championships in Lignano (Italy) at the end of
next week.  

Billy McPherson, Scotland head coach, said:  “The Richard
Docherty tournament is very important, we made progress last week
at the Menzieshill event and we would like to do the same this
weekend.  We would like to win the tournament, this would help
for Europe, but all the players and teams are of the highest
quality.”

The Welsh side Celtic Panthers are also preparing for the
European Nations Championships, but they will have to show
considerable improvement from the Menzieshill tournament where they
finished last, without gaining a single point. 

Play starts at 10 am on Saturday at Napier University`s Engage
Sports Centre in Sighthill with the six pool matches during
the course of the day, the semi-finals are on Sunday again starting
at 10am and the final is scheduled to commence at 2 pm.

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