October 17, 2022 Oak IOM Junior Hockey preseason games

Oak is pleased to continue its sponsorship of the Isle of Man Junior Hockey Team, which has recently travelled off-island for a series of preseason games in preparation for the 2022/23 English Hockey Championships. 

Outside of Belfast, on the beautiful grounds of Lisnagarvey Hockey club, home to the Irish Men's Champions, the under 14, 16 and 18 teams, both boys and girls, began pre-season play against two Irish clubs.  

Throughout the morning U14 and U16’s faced a set a of fixtures against The Lisnagarvey and Dublin YM teams, while the U18’s teams faced top school side Wallace and Lisnagarvey in the afternoon.  

The fixtures proved to be very tough for all the Manx sides however, the teams performed fantastic games, displaying a great deal of potential, and competing well against two very powerful opponents. The Under 16 boys team performed admirably, winning one game and losing three more to extremely skilled Irish representative players, particularly Ulster players on the Lisnagarvey teams. 

Both U14 squads featured a significant number of players making their Island debut. Both teams need some time to find their footing, but after a notable improvement in the afternoon's matches, both lost narrowly to the Irish teams. 

Overall, it was a great experience for the coaching staff to observe the performances of all six teams, which gave them both experience playing away from home and an idea of things to work on back in IOM. 

Congratulations to all competing teams, and best of luck in the upcoming English Hockey Championships.