HAM

Punch & Judy Rabat made hockey history on Sunday by being the first club to win an official honour on the new artificial turf at the Kordin Hockey Complex. The HAM Super Cup was contested by reigning Champions Punch & Judy Rabat and K.O. Winners Floriana Young Stars.

Punch and Judy Rabat had Chris Bugeja missing at the back but Brian Tanti and Shawn Falzon made up for his absence with timely tackles and good covering. In the mid-field captain Kevin Micallef and Robert Aquilina did the usual damage with their penetrating runs into the Floriana defence while Josef Antonelli did a remarkable job in holding the ball upfront and at the same time keeping the yellows defence on their toes with his mazy dribbles. The new surface will certainly bring to the fore the already notable technical skills of the Rabat players. Floriana YS had a full squad at their disposal although from last year's squad they had the Bugeja brothers and Andrei Ghigo missing. These have opted to join up with the Floriana Celtics. The Celtics will be the second team from Young Stars Hockey Club participating in this year's competition but with the talent in this squad it may be more than a second team. With Ivan Magro, Edward Hughes and skipper Charles Micallef working hard in midfield things looked brigh
t earlier on for Floriana YS who had Agius Darmanin up front being helped by the advanced right winger David Evans.

In fact if was Floriana YS who were first of the mark, opening the score in the 16th minute when Chris Attard blasted in an unstoppable hit following a short corner. The lead barely lasted 4 minutes as Charlo Antonelli restored parity for Punch & Judy with a close range shot on 20 minutes after a very good run from his brother Josef on the left side. Again this result did not last long as Punch & Judy took the lead thanks to goal in the 24th minute from Robert Aquilina again following a short corner move. The half ended with the Champions 2-1 ahead. The game remained balanced with Young Stars doing their best to pull back the deficit but Jonathan Seychell sealed A fifth Super Cup victory for Rabat in the 51st minute after a quick counter attack from the left side. At the end of the game HAM President Chris Busutill Leaver presented Rabat captain, Kevin Micallef with the trophy.

With the Super Cup now out of the way, the next competition gets under way. The Challenge Cup will see all six teams taking part, divided into two groups. Group A has Floriana Young Stars, Pembroke White Hart and Celtics Young Stars while Group B is made up of Punch & Judy Rabat, Sliema Hs., and Qormi. On Sunday Pembroke White Hart will face Celtics YS at 9.00am while at 11.00 Sliema Hs face Qormi.

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