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HAM

- The Hunters’ Tower Rest in second place.

On Sunday the curtain came down on the hockey National League with the last two games. In the first game Champions Rabat beat Sliema Hs 3-1 while in the second game White Hart cancelled out the last nought in the league table when they registered their first win of the season beating Poiatti Qormi 2-0. The final league table reads as follows:

P W D L F A PTS
Rabat Depiro 12 9 2 1 25 10 29
The Hunters’ Tower Rest. YS 12 6 2 4 18 12 20
Sliema Hs 12 5 3 4 11 10 18
Poiatti Qormi 12 4 2 6 13 16 14
White Hart 12 1 1 10 8 27 4


This season’s League Championship was another triumph for Rabat who picked up their fourth consecutive title. Last year they ended the season three points ahead of closest rivals Sliema Hs. This time round they finished with a massive nine-point lead in front of second placed The Hunters’ Tower Rest. On Sunday they ended their commitments with a victory in an unnecessarily nervous game against Sliema Hs. Jason Vella put them in the lead but Liam Pace equalized before half time. An early penalty corner goal in the second half from Chris Bugeja put Rabat back in front and Branko Radojevic made it 3-1 in the final minutes.

This year’s victory was a tribute to their consistency through out, a consistency that none of their opponents could maintain. In fact Young Stars were the side that took most points off Rabat picking up two draws and a victory but then Young Stars did not manage one point against Sliema Hs and the same Sliema dropped two points against wooden spoon winners White Hart; two points that eventually cost them the chance to face Young Stars in a decider for second place. At the start of the third round Poiatti Qormi were welled poised to challenge for second place but a disastrous third round, one point for a possible twelve saw them slide down the table. Qormi’s disastrous third round culminated on Sunday when they were beaten 2-0 by White Hart. The goals from David Agius and Chris Mintoff allowed Tony Tabone’s boys to pick up their first victory of the campaign. All in all it was a deserved victory, not just for their performance on the day but more so for their efforts through out the season despite the difference in experience between them and the rest of the pack.

HAM senior competitions take a break over the weekend to allow for the visit from Stralsund Hockey club from Germany. The German veterans will be playing against Young Stars veterans on Friday 22nd at 19.00hrs and a selection of HAM veterans on Sunday at 10.00.

The senior competitions will resume the following weekend with the KO preliminary round match between Sliema Hs and White Hart.

European Hockey Challenge 2 (Men)

Once again Rabat will be hosting the European Hockey Championship Challenge 2 for Men between the 12th and 15th of May. Following last year’s success, the European Hockey Federation has chosen the local Champions to host this tournament. Besides Rabat, the champions of Serbia & Montenegro (MB Tricotex), Sweden (Partille HC), Norway (Aker HC) and Turkey (Kecioren Belediye) will also be participating. There will be two matches on Thursday 12th and Saturday 14th and three matches on Friday 13th and Sunday 15th.

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