With the Mixed Hockey Premier League returning on Saturday 13th September, four of the Island’s clubs – Harlequins, Valkyrs, Bacchas and Castletown – took to the NSC astro pitch for a pre-season series of friendly matches.
Each club’s A team was in action, using the opportunity to test out new formations, tactical approaches, set plays and to blood new players ahead of the competitive campaign.
The results were closely contested throughout the afternoon:
Harlequins 2–1 Bacchas
Castletown 0–1 Valkyrs
Valkyrs 2–0 Bacchas
Harlequins 0–1 Castletown
Harlequins 1–1 Valkyrs
Bacchas 0–1 Castletown
With scorelines close in all 6 fixtures, the competition proved both even and competitive, offering valuable match sharpness before the Premier League’s restart. Castletown, Valkyrs and Harlequins each registered multiple positive results, while Bacchas were unfortunate not to turn their narrow defeats into draws or wins.
Clubs also used this as an opportunity for some less experienced umpires to step up and umpire some of the matches, gaining valuable experience at a higher level of hockey.
Organisers and teams were delighted with the standard of hockey and the usefulness of the warm-up games, and there are already plans to expand the event next year to include all Premier League sides over a full Saturday of competition at the NSC, perhaps running it as two Pools of 4 teams, with the winner of each pool through to the final at the end of the day, hopefully it could be become an annual event.
In addition, a similar competition may be planned for Under-15 teams on the Sunday, further supporting player development and offering younger players the chance to experience tournament-style hockey.
This pre-season showcase underlined the increasing standards of Manx hockey and set the tone perfectly for what promises to be an exciting 2025 Mixed Premier League season.