The Banks Barbados International Hockey Festival was a success, the president of the Barbados Hockey Federation (BHF), David Rouse, said at the conclusion of the 28th edition at Kensington Oval on Saturday.
Rouse told NATIONSPORT that judging from the responses of the players who competed, especially those from overseas, the tournament was well-received.
“I think overall it was a success, and I am saying so judging by the enjoyment of the teams,”?he said. “The visiting teams enjoyed themselves tremendously, especially the lone international team, the Durham Jesters.”
“Our social events were very well-attended, and this was very pleasing to see following a falloff in recent years.”
Rouse said that the Trinidadian police team which had suffered a setback due to the passing of one of their colleagues, still attended social events and continued playing in the competition.
This led to them receiving the Michael Owen Spirit of the Festival Award, which is given to the team which best depicts the true spirit of the festival, he said.
Prior to the start of the annual event, Rouse, who is also chairman of the Festival Committee, expressed concern about the the lack of an artificial turf and the impact it would have on the future staging.
“There are international teams who will not come to the festival because we do not have an AstroTurf,” Rouse said then.
“The Astroturf is crucial to the success of the festival and there is a distinct possibility that we could end up losing the festival to another country if we don’t address the matter.”
He revealed that both the Cayman Islands and Tobago were working towards installing synthetic surfaces, with hopes of hosting similar festivals.
And with plans to relay an AstroTurf in time for the 2014 festival, he had already received bookings from teams in Hong Kong, Germany, England and Dubai to compete in next year’s competition.
This year, matches were played on grass at Queen’s Park and the Police Sports Club, Weymouth.
Rouse pointed to a lack of marketing as one of the more disappointing aspects of the competition.
In acknowledging that this was due mainly to a lack of funds, he said that more needed to be done to make the festival more attractive.
“I was a bit disappointed with the turnout for the final day at Kensington Oval. I guess this was mostly due to the rain and the fact that people probably didn’t know it was the finals unless they read the papers.
“We didn’t do much advertising, obviously because we didn’t have the money to, but to get people to come out we know we have to advertise,” Rouse said.
He added that they would also be looking to better market the competition internationally, in an effort to attract more teams to the island.
One of the other areas where he highlighted they would be also looking to improve was in attracting umpires.
Rouse explained that most of the local umpires were players, and this led to a shortage of officials for some of the matches.
“The Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) would have usually afforded the funding for umpires years ago, but because of the economic conditions they can’t do as much,” he stated.
“There were some umpires from Trinidad that had expressed interest in coming to officiate, but we got the funding too late and we weren’t able to get back to them in time.”
