Menzieshill head to European Trophy
8th February 2010Scottish indoor club champions, Menzieshill, from Dundee, head to Vienna 19-21 February for the men’s European Indoor Club Champions Trophy.
“Our aim is to get back up to the Championship but it won’t be easy,” said head coach Billy McPherson.
The club has played in the top level Cup competition four out of five times since 2005, so getting back into the top flight should be a realistic target. But European teams like Sweden’s Partille SC, France’s Lille MHC and England’s East Grinstead HC will make it tough for the seven time consecutive Scottish Indoor champs.
McPherson:“The team is very confident; we have been playing some of our best indoor hockey for some time. Undoubtedly, more international exposure has been of benefit to the players.”
The Dundonians, no stranger to international club competition, are hosting more Scottish national indoor squad members this year than ever before. Six Menzieshill players made up half of the Scotland squad that recently competed in the EuroHockey Indoor Nations Trophy in Poznan, Poland back in January.
“Our success in recent years is getting recognised and as a result more players have been selected for the national squad,” explained McPherson. “This is obviously great exposure for our club; however, having so many players away with the national team has made it difficult for us to play in other international tournaments. We played in Prague in November, before the indoor season started, but we also usually go to Denmark in early January but that wasn’t possible this year.”
Menzieshill beat Dundee Wanderers and Inverleith this weekend to be, yet again, crowned Scottish indoor Champion with 32 points. But, making for a more competitive league, Glasgow’s Western Wildcats and Edinburgh based Inverleith were nipping at their heels for most of the season.
“Over the last decade domestic competition hasn’t been all that strong, but within the last few years it has become more and more competitive. This season teams have been closer, which is good. Usually we have to go to Europe to get competitive games and tournaments but that is becoming very expensive, so a competitive domestic league would be very beneficial,” concluded McPherson.
Menzieshill push back against England’s East Grinstead HC first at 10:25 on Friday, 19 February followed by Partille SC at 16:50. Saturday, 20 February sees the club face Lille HC at 09:45 before the pool stages start later that afternoon.