DEFENDING CHAMPIONS Plus All Stars and Aixen of Germany scored contrasting semi-final victories yesterday at Kensington Oval to set up a mouth-watering finale today in the men’s division of the 27th annual Banks International Hockey Festival.
All Stars were made to fight every inch of the way before seeing off Du Badd Crew 3-1 in a semi-final that did not quite reach the quality expected from two teams filled with young talent.
Aixen, seeking to be the first foreign men’s champs since Yate Sharks of England in 1999, advertised their title credentials with a comfortable 5-0 victory over University of the West Indies (UWI) in the other semi. The visitors’ five goals were supplied by Bastian Gerke and Maxi Schulte in the first half, and Ingmar Groening, Florian Pretz and captain Philip Schmitz in the second period. Groening’s goal was a fine diving effort from the right shortly after half time to virtually seal the result.
Germany recently won men’s gold at the London Olympics and the Hamburg boys are looking to ride that wave of success in today’s final.
