On the weekend before Christmas, Railway Union men’s team travelled north up the M1 to the Physical Education Centre at Queens University Belfast to compete in the National Indoor Hockey finals.
Railway were representing Leinster and they overcame the Ulster challengers of NICS (Northern Ireland Civil Service) and Queens University.
Railway went unbeaten over the two days of intense competition, scoring a total of 26 goals for and only five against during their four matches. This means Railway have now won the National Indoor Trophy for the second season in succession.
Next up for the Railway Indoor squad is the European Club Champions Challenge, which takes place in Prague, Czech Republic from the 14th to the 16th of February. Here Railway will take on some of the best indoor hockey teams from all over Europe, east and west, at the cauldron that is the Slavia Indoor Stadium.
The men’s team will try to follow in the footsteps of Railway’s women’s side who won the equivalent women’s trophy in Bratislava, Slovakia in 2011. Railway will face top clubs such as the hosts and widely known Slavia Prague and also Grunwald Poznan from Poland who are the Polish Army side. In their ranks they will have some Polish olympians from 2004 and also many players who were on the Polish team who were runners up to Germany at the Indoor Hockey World Cup 2011.
It will be a tough ask for Railway to come away with silverware but that is what European competitions are all about and the lads are well up for the challenge and have been training hard over the Christmas and new year period.
If you would like to join Railway Union HC (everyone welcome, men, women, boys, girls) please tweet us or send us a Facebook message for details of appropriate training times.
Pictured left, back row, left to right: Hilary O’Reilly (Manager), Simon Thornton, Richard Forrest, Jack Kavanagh, Mark English, Fiachra Maher, Stephen O’Keeffe, and Gillian Johnston (Asst. Manager).
Front row: Kenny Carroll, Paul O’Brien, Rob Abbott, Jake Morton and David McCarthy.
By David Carroll
