The Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) kicked off the National Men’s and Women’s Hockey Championship with wins in both categories on the inaugural day on Wednesday.

The Army’s men’s team defeated Gandaki Province while the women’s team was victorious over Madhesh Province.

The championship began at the Lalitpur-based Chyasal Football Stadium between eight men’s teams and four women’s teams.

The eight teams include three departmental teams—TAC, Nepal Police Club (NPC) and APF Club—and five provincial teams—Gandaki, Madhesh, Karnali, Koshi and Bagmati.

TAC, Gandaki, Madhesh and Bagmati are the only teams in the women’s category.

The men’s teams have been divided into two groups of four each, with the participants competing in a single round-robin format. APF, the newest hockey team in the tournament, is in Group B with Bagmati, Karnali and NPC, while TAC, Gandaki, Madhesh and Koshi make up Group A.

On the other hand, the women’s teams are competing in a double round robin format, with the winner decided on a points basis.

Meanwhile, in the men’s category, the top two teams from each group will enter the playoffs and compete for the trophy through the semi-final and final games. The semi-final and final have been slated for May 7 and 8, respectively.

The top three teams in both categories will receive Rs75,000, Rs50,000 and Rs25,000, respectively.

Shutout victories

In the three games of Match Day 1, the three winning teams secured convincing shutout victories. Army’s men’s team defeated Gandaki 3-0, and the women’s team ousted Madhesh 7-0.

Pradip Rajbanshi, Kashi Raj Rai and Dev Singh Dhami were the scorers for Army’s men’s team, while Roshan Chaudhary was the Player of the Match. Meanwhile, there were two hat-trick heroes for the Army women’s team.

Seema Khadka and Kamala Chand scored three goals each, while Nilima Pandey scored the remaining one against Madhesh. Chand was declared the Player of the Match.

NPC registered the biggest win of the day. Police scored nine goals while keeping a clean sheet against Karnali. Ayush Sah and Suresh Prasad Joshi scored two each while Shankar Gharti Magar, Nabaraj Khatri, Suraj Bohora, Kashi Ram Khatri and Amit Ojha found the back of the net once each. Sah was adjudged the Player of the Match.

The second match day on Thursday will see Madhesh vs Koshi and APF vs Bagmati in the men’s category. In the women’s, Bagmati face Gandaki.

Lack of ground

Even as the national championship kicked off, hockey stakeholders were not completely happy, mostly because of the lack of a proper ground.

Talking to the Post at Chyasal Stadium on the eve of the tournament opener, Subarna Shrestha, secretary general at the Nepal Hockey Association, said that the ground was the only option for them.

“We do not have a dedicated hockey ground despite the game being popular in Nepal during the 1960s to 1990s,” said Shrestha as she showed the poor condition of the Chyasal Stadium, which was recently affected by flood. “The ground is neither totally flat nor grassy as required.”

The participating teams said they struggled on the uneven Chyasal ground. Yet, as it was not much worse than the grounds they practised on, they shared happiness for the national-level championship to have at least been organised.

Meanwhile, the Association informed that it was gearing up to build a hockey ground. “We have got lands in Dhulikhel for the ground,” Shrestha said. “A detailed project report (DPR) has been prepared through the Bagmati Sports Development Council. With sufficient budget, it would be ready to host games in the next two years.”