Tag: international

by Sam Cockwell

Falklands take home Bronze and Gold from Amerigol LATAM Cup 2019

This year the Falkland Islands Hockey Association took two teams to compete in the Amerigol Latam Cup for the first time and came away with medals for both teams!  The performance from the Falkland’s players was superb, with the under 16’s coming away with a bronze, and a gold for the senior team (which includes a number of players from around the world that are involved in Falklands hockey so competed under the rest of the world (ROTW) name). This tournament is traditional 5-5 ice hockey and the first time the club has played in a proper international tournament of this kind so this was a new experience for most, including rules for icing, penalty minutes, and a huge ice surface.

Friday

The competition began for the Falklands for the senior team with a game against Mexico which finished 3-1 to the Falklands. Next the under 16s took on the tournament favourites and eventual champions Colombia, which ended up finishing 7-2 to Colombia. Our boys played really well, and put in a couple of fantastic goals courtesy of Lane McKay with assists from Malachi Budd and Theo Duncan.  It was also the first time the lads played together on this ice surface and in these positions so it was a really great experience for them.

Lane McKay takes a shot in the opening game against Colombia (NM)

Next the seniors took on Brazil which finished 4-1 to the Falklands with local goaltender Stuart Duncan playing an excellent game and nearly getting the shutout (0.973 save percentage which is awesome).   This put the team on top of their side of the draw. This resulted in a buy though the quarter finals to the semi-finals, which also gave the senior team a very welcome rest over the Saturday.

Saturday

The under 16s then took on a USA team which was made of players which are based at the nearby Pembroke Pines rink.  They are a good group of skaters and hockey players with all the facilities to practice and play hockey.  Our boys put in a huge effort with James Hartley and Ethan Fowler (the two youngest in the team) taking the critical centre man positions, and Matt Francis was changing from forward to defence. This seemed to really help the lines and the whole team showed a great poise and strength in the game especially considering where they have to train and develop.  The boys won 3-1 in a highly competitive game.  With goals from: Danny Ross, Matt Francis and Malachi Budd, and assists from Danny Ross and Joseff Murphy.

U16s team proudly celebrating the win (L-R James Hartley, Stu Duncan(AC)*, Craig Dockrill (HC)*, Ethan Fowler, Jake Hawksworth, Malachi Budd, Temis Smith, Matt Francis, Lane McKay, Joseff Murphy, Tom Watson, Danny Ross, Nick Francis(TM)*, Grant Budd  (AC)*, Theo Duncan, Travis Jaffray, Tyrese Ceballos (MM)

Next up one of the most hotly contested games was the Argentine under 16 against our under 16. The Argentine team are highly skilled, and we got to know them well over the pre-tournament training, they are a great team with a great hockey attitude. Argentina ultimately triumphed in this game with the final score 6-1 but that doesn’t reflect the whole game, which was only 2-1 at the end of the second period. The team gave 100% for the entire game and left everything they had on the ice, but the larger bench and level of ice experience for the Argentine team showed in the final period with them netting another 4 goals against our tiring lads.  They could only get the one goal in this game from Malachi Budd with an assist from Jake Hawksworth, but again that doesn’t reflect the level of effort and skill, with a huge amount showed by all the team.

This result put the boys in the 3rd place playoff against USA.

Sunday

3rd place playoff (USA Vs. Falkland’s) This time it was clear the boys had settled into their positions and took the fight to the USA with Matt Francis leading the scoring with 4 goals on his sheet, a big part of the 6-3 victory, this landed the boys a highly deserved 3rd place. This was the first ever medal position for the Falklands in a full size traditional international ice hockey tournament!

It was an impressive stats sheet for the team with goals from Matt Francis (4), Theo Duncan, and Malachi Budd. Aided by assists from James Hartley (3), Danny Ross (2), Lane McKay, Ethan Fowler and Matt Francis.

The score sheets never reflect the whole team effort that is required to win in Ice Hockey, with excellent effort also put in by Travis Jaffray in defence, remaining solid in the Falklands teams own half.  The goalies can’t go without mention, with Temis Smith, Tyrese Ceballos and Tom Watson all putting in a whole game each, and all getting a shift in the 3rd place game.

Under 16’s receive their well deserved bronze medals
L-R (Back) Ethan Fowler, Jake Hawksworth, Matt Francis, Theo Duncan, Travis Jaffray, Tom Watson, Joseff Murphy
L-R (Front)Temis Smith, Lane McKay, Danny Ross, James Hartley, Tyrese Ceballos (BC)

 

Later that morning the seniors played Mexico again as they had won their semi-final. This game was tough with the Mexican keeper playing well and excellent passing and defending keeping the score sheet blank for the Falkland Islands and Mexico slowly collecting 2 goals.  That was until the final four minutes when Jonathan Nicholson finally got the Falklands their opening goal. With a minute remaining the Falklands pulled the keeper to get another attacker on the ice; this nearly ended in disaster when Mexico took a shot at open goal, fortunately missing and giving the Falklands another attack with Craig Dockrill netting the all-important equaliser with only 15 seconds remaining on the clock. This meant that there would be 5 minutes of overtime playing 3-3 hockey – this suited our team and playing style well and Ryan Bahl quickly got the golden goal which took the team into the final with Puerto Rico.

ROTW and Mexico line up for an after game photo – a great semifinal game of hockey! (BC)

The final hurdle to the seniors championship was the game with Puerto Rico, no-one on the team had seen them play but from the results the team knew they were dominant and did not concede goals easily.

The final started with PR showing incredible skating speed and stickhandling, with the goaltender Jason Wood taking shots right away.  Then the breakthrough was a long dumped puck toward the goal from our blue line which went in!  We had caught out the PR goalie unawares (which happens even to the professionals), but it lit a fire for the Falklands and the game continued in that style with Puerto Rico pushing their skating speed and skills to get shots at our goalie (which he mostly had covered), and our team breaking out and taking successful long shots.  The final score was 6-2 to the Falklands.   Giving them the Falklands their first win at a tournament

CHAMPIONS (L-R Back) Ed Naus(C)*, Nick Francis(TM)*, John Nickleson, Gabrielle Ceballos, Hillel Sokolsky, Craig Dockrill, Malachi Budd, Sam Cockwell, Grant Budd, Ryan Bahl, Claudio Ross, Arild Stormer. (Front) – Stu Duncan, Jason Wood (BC)
Thank you

This whole tournament was a great success, and with an international contingent of teams from throughout the American continents including: Jamaica, Puerto Rico, USA, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil and of course the Falkland Islands.  We made great friends there, and contacts which are passionate about developing hockey in the Falklands and helping us however we can to take the sport to the next level.  Thanks especially to Juan Carlos Ortero from Amerigol ltd. for organising the Latam Cup and the Florida Panthers NHL team for hosting it in their training rink the Ice Den, as well as Wayne Whitmore and Wanda Weed for organising the pre tournament sniper/goalie camp, and NHL referee legend Mike Leggo and Michaela Bahl for holding a 2 day referee camp.  It was a total experience that we wont forget!

OUR SPONSORS

And of course our sponsors without which it would have been impossible to attend: Byron Ltd, Tonedog Designs, Sulivan Shipping Services Ltd, Shorty’s Diner, Seafish Chandlery, Penguin Travel, FIG, Seaview Logistics, JK Marine, Beauchene Fishing Company Ltd., Cyril and Val Ellis, G&K Services, Argos Ltd., Fortuna Ltd., Energise, Sure, The Narrows Bar, and the Skating Club.

Thank you to you all!

Thanks also to Nikki Murphy(NM), Marika McKay(MM), Nick Francis(NF), Ryan Bahl(RB), and BC Photography (BC) for use of their photographs.
*(TM) – Team Manager, (HC) – Head Coach, (AC) – Assistant Coach, (C) Captain

by Sam Cockwell

MEGA Patagonian 2018 Teams Rosters

The success of the Falkland Islands hockey teams in 2018 at the MEGA Patagonian hosted in Punta Arenas is fully covered in the write up here: Round up of 2018 Internationals, however in brief the teams took home gold in all of their respective categories which was a huge accomplishment for the players, the association and ice hockey within the region.  Especially as there is no ice in the Falklands, so all these teams had to convert to ice from inline in the days running up to the tournament. for clarity this tournament was played on a small ice rink so the game format was 3-3 with only two zones with the centre line being the offside line also.

This page is dedicated to recording those who competed and contributed to the team during that contest:

Seniors Team (Stanley Penguins)

  • Claudio Ross
  • Macro Leyton
  • Sam Cockwell
  • Grant Budd
  • Ed Naus
  • Tom Watson (GT)
  • Stu Duncan (GT)
  • Mike Whitlock
  • Theo Duncan
  • Matt Francis
  • Malachi Budd

Ladies Team (Valkyries)

  • Lucy McGuire
  • Samantha McCormick
  • Gabby Hartley
  • Juliette Hennequin
  • Kathy Aguilera
  • Regan Newman
  • Thomas Graham (Guest GT)

Junior Team (Stanley Penguins)

  • Matt Francis
  • Malachi Budd
  • Theo Duncan
  • Danny Ross
  • Kathy Aguilera
  • Regan Newman
  • Tyrese Ceballos (GT)
  • Richie Short
  • Dean Ellis (GT)
  • Lane McKay
  • Gabby Hartley

youth Team (Stanley Rock hoppers)

  • Jake Hawksworth
  • Luke Gilbert
  • Calvin Curtis
  • Theo Clifton
  • Tyler Jordan
  • Jacob Smith
  • Jack Kelly
  • Logan Halliday
  • Liam McRae (GT)
  • James Hartley
  • Louis Francis

Staff

  • Nick Francis – Equipment manager
  • Grant Budd – Head Coach
  • Ed Naus – Assistant Coach
  • Pam Budd – Treasurer
  • Paul Ellis
  • Jeanette Hartley
  • Jeff Halliday
  • Thomas Stockting (FITV)

Thanks also to the Zona Austral for hosting the tournament and all the work put in by the organisers and teams in Punta Arenas for making it happen.

by Sam Cockwell

Round up of 2018 Internationals

Punta Diary Round up

(originally in Penguin News 31/08/2018)
Firstly the whole trip would not have been possible without our sponsors and supporters – Byron, Energise, Tone Dog Designs, Sure, International Tours and Travel, Fortuna, Seaview Logistics, C+V Ellis, Beauchene, G+K Services, Sullivan Shipping, Shorty’s, Argos, Martech, the Seafish Chandlery and our association with the Stephen Jaffray Memorial Fund. The support from Alex Mitham at the FCO the Falklands people and from everyone passing through Punta during the tournament was outstanding.

The unique aspect of the hockey club is training and playing with the whole team from young to old, high performers to beginners. This builds a special camaraderie taking us to a higher level when it comes to competing. In the final weeks before the tournament the teams prepared with tailored Pilates session and circuits courtesy of Anna Cockwell and Beverly Bates, and attending a couple of skipfit sessions embarrassing ourselves initially with erratic skipping techniques.

The Tournaments

Grant Budd and Ed Naus competed in the first outdoor natural ice tournament in Puerto Williams in the “rest of the world” team, along with players from Chile, Argentina and elsewhere. The tournament was plagued by worry as the lagoon ice started to melt from the edges. The ice held in the centre for the whole contest including three moves of the rink to fresh ice, right until the final group photo where the lagoon finally gave up, cracked, and caused the whole group to scatter. Fortunately no-one got an early bath. After this tournament Grant and Ed visited the school Bulnes in Punta Arenas. They spoke with the English class to talk about Canada the Falklands, and the Commonwealth, our similarities and differences, and the importance of understanding different cultures. The link with this school is through one of the organisers of the Mega Patagonian tournament and PE teacher Miguel Villarroel (also captain of the hockey team Aonikenk – a relatively new team named after the Indigenous people of the region).
The rest of the team arrived in Punta Arenas on the 11th for 4 days ice familiarisation and training before the first game on Wednesday. This was tricky for everyone, lots of slipping and tripping with Nick Francis performing a lovely swimming motion (video available on the Falklands Islands Hockey Facebook group), and watching brothers Tommy and Ethan Ross tackling each other was especially entertaining.


The performance of the Falkland Islands teams was outstanding taking home all four golds in the four categories. Probably the more fulfilling aspect of the tournament was the building of relationships with the other teams in the Magallanes Region and each other. The teams from Chile and Argentina really played hard; none of the games were easy for us.

Then some friendly games; the first night was mixed teams of all players and nationalities, developing friendships and smoothing over any small rivalries from the tournament. Less beautiful was the second night with a goalie vs. girl game. To describe it in words would be an injustice, there is a full video on the FITV Facebook page (not to single out any performance but the “Flying Watson” is a sight to behold). The final score 2-2 reflecting an unrelenting effort from the goalies against a very polished girls team.
We will all take away a lot of special memories; taxis filled to the brim with sweaty players, loud celebratory parties, desperate rides across the city to retrieve forgotten kit, a somewhat tuneful rendition of the national anthem, generous hosts, middle of the night burgers after flooding the ice, tears after winning, family rivalry in the go carting, and new friendships forged.

Throughout the tournament we were all humbled by the concept of the hockey family. Players, supporters, organisers, officials are there with a common purpose to play hockey and support each other, no matter what happens on the ice. No matter who wins the camaraderie with other teams was outstanding, and probably almost unique to ice hockey as a team sport. A special note of thanks to Thomas Stockting from FITV; he not only covered all of the games with his coverage reaching more people than ever before, but also became a big part of the hockey family.
In preparing for 2019 we will continue helping Puerto Williams(PW) and Punta Arenas(PA) arrange tournaments for next year. PW will be earlier in the winter to make the best of the natural ice. PA same time next year to tie in with the Falkland Islands School holidays.

Where do we want to be?

The Falklands hockey association has shown this year that we are not only competitive within the region (Magallanes) but without ice experience we were still able to win all four of the categories with an entirely locally resident team. With sustained effort and facilities (multi use ice rink in winter/ concrete in summer) the Falkland Islands could become competitive not only in the region, but within the larger area of South and Central America (lets be real – USA and Canada are out of our reach). In the future we want to compete with the likes of Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile and the like. Not as an also-ran, or a novelty team, but as a serious competitor, albeit as an underdog. In movie terms think Cool Runnings meets Slapshot (a must watch for hockey fans).

Hockey is all about inclusivity, teamwork, camaraderie, and sportsmanship. Our 2019 inline season starts in March.  There are also weekly get-your-skates-on sessions in the leisure centre from 3-4 pm every Saturday and Sunday to hone skating skills and have fun. If you or someone you know is interested in trying out inline or deck hockey please get in touch with the hockey association via the Facebook group or the contact form on this site.