Pachaiyappa’s edge Loyola in thriller

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Hockey is not a popular sport in city colleges. It is the bitter truth. Many factors - the rising cost of sticks and goalkeeping equipment, shortage of grounds with artificial surfaces and lack of direction from administrators - have combined to take hockey down the pecking order.

Loyola, Pachaiyappa’s and DB Jain are among the handful of colleges that are striving hard to keep competitive hockey teams against heavy odds.

The recently concluded University of Madras inter-zonal tournament witnessed an intense competition for the top prize among the above-mentioned three teams. DB Jain, the in-form team this season, had to be content with third place.

In a riveting final on October 20, Pachaiyappa’s edged out Loyola 2-1 to bag the bragging rights as the best in the University of Madras.

Pachaiyappa’s coach ‘Tommy’ Nathan savours the title. “I can’t claim any credit for the performance because I started training the team only two weeks ago.

The players and the physical director of the college had done the hard work. But I felt immensely proud to be involved with the success of Pachaiyappa’s,” he said. Nathan had coached Pachaiyappa’s a decade ago and he is happy to have started his latest innings on a triumphant note.

The coach said the final at the MRK Stadium was a thriller. “Loyola never gave us an inch. We had to fight until the end to win the title.

The way we came back from a goal down showed our mental strength and fighting spirit. Hassan Basha and Dhamu were on target for us. The match was so competitive that it could have gone either way,” he added.

According to Nathan, there is room for improvement. “We missed many chances against Loyola.

What hurt me more was our wastefulness in penalty corners. If we don’t grab our chances, pressure mounts. I will have to work on the team’s sharpness in front of goal,” he said.

Winning the inter-zonal championship has helped Pachaiyappa’s stake claim for a majority of places in the University of Madras squad. “The main goal of all college players is to appear for the university. A university cap is useful to get jobs with government teams,” Nathan said.

“Most of the players in the Pachaiyappa’s team have it in them to scale greater peaks.”