Namibian hockey enters an exciting new era with the first artificial turf having finally been installed at Windhoek High School.
The Davin Trustco Field at WHS was inaugurated last week with a girls’ schools match between WHS and WAP, which was dedicated to WHS’ late coach Jean Davin who died in a car accident earlier this year.
With Windhoek Gymnasium also busy building an artificial turf that will be ready soon, Namibian players will finally have an opportunity to improve their skills, while Namibia will now also be able to host international field tournaments.
The Namibian club field league kicks off this weekend and with all the teams having to adapt to the new turf, both the Men and Women’s Premier Leagues could be wide open.
The Men’s Premier League kicks off with two interesting encounters on Saturday, with Windhoek Old Boys taking on Unam at 14h00 while DTS take on Wanderers at 15h30.
Unam dominated the Men’s Premier League for more than a decade, but WOB took over the title in 2013, while DTS were the champions last year.
WOB have shown some good early season form in the Wanderers Night League, where they topped the log after winning four and drawing two of their matches. They take on DTS in the final of the night league at Wanderers tonight.
With established players like Siyabonga Martins, Bucko Bartlett and Riaan Kruger in their midst, as well as some exciting youngsters breaking through they should start as the favourites against Unam, who are still in a rebuilding phase according to their coach Erwin Handura.
“We are still in a rebuilding phase and have a lot of young players coming through. But our finishing has been a problem in the night league while Old Boys have scored a lot of goals,” he said.
“We’ll also have to watch Sia (Martins) who has the speed and the skills to do well on astro,” he said.
He however added that all the teams will have to start from scratch.
“All the teams will have to adjust to the new turf and it won’t be easy because one has to play a totally different kind of game on astro. The ball must do the work, and teams that have a better passing game will do better than those relying on individual skills,” he said.
DTS, who won a tournament-based league championship last year, have also been in impressive early-season form, winning three and drawing two of their night league matches en route to tonight’s the final.
They too, have a good mix of experience in players like DJ Strauss, Peter John and upcoming juniors like Wayne Jeffery and Percy Barthram, while Wanderers will be led by experienced campaigners Francois Fuscher, Stefan du Preez and Andrew Louw.
The remaining teams in the Men’s Premier League are the Gurus, Polytech and newcomers the Saints, who are led by veteran Trevor Cormack and mostly include young school boys.
In the Women’s Premier League, the defending champions Windhoek Old Boys should once again start as the favourites, with players of the calibre of Marcia Venter, Dunelle van Taak and Phia Gerber in their midst, although DTS, Wanderers and Unam could provide stiff competition.
Unam will be strengthened by the return of national captain Maggie Mengo from DTS, while DTS will rely on Jerri Cormack and Andrea Grogli; and Wanderers on Juanne Louw and Leandrie Mostert.
The remaining teams in the Women’s Premier League are the Saints and Polytechnic.
