Sportingbet’s Bob Dutnall, left, and festival organiser Richard Bowyer. (0551882)
A DUTCH team will give an international feel to events at Foote’s Lane at the weekend when 120 visiting players take on local teams in the Guernsey Hockey Club’s annual Easter Festival.
The event, which gets underway on Good Friday, has been a fixture of the local hockey calendar for more than 30 years. It has been boosted this year thanks to a new sponsorship deal with Sportingbet.
The local firm’s managing director, Bob Dutnall, said it was keen to support such a long-standing event. ‘We know that the Easter Festival has been a major event for island hockey over the years and it is a great to have fixtures like this that bring a lot of sportsmen and women to the island year in and year out,’ he said.
‘With any event like this you have the competitive sport element, but it is also important to have a social side. The organisers have worked hard to ensure there is a great mix of both at this event.’ he said.
A total of 16 teams have entered the festival, including one club from the Netherlands. Players are also coming from Oxford, Newbury, Bristol, Jersey, Kent, and Northamptonshire.
Organiser Richard Bowyer said that with the Easter weekend falling so early this year he was pleased that they had attracted such a good entry.
‘Over the years the festival has been very successful in attracting visiting players. We even have a group from London who can’t field a whole side but are coming over anyway and we will get them involved somehow,’ he said.
‘This is the first year since I have been involved in the festival that we have had a corporate sponsor, which is a great help and we are really grateful to Sportingbet for their support.’
This year’s festival will see separate men’s and mixed competitions, both of which will be in a round-robin format. The first matches will start on Friday morning, and the event will continue on Saturday and Sunday.
Article posted on 19th March, 2008 - 2.29pm
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