17/10/2009

I learnt hockey as a student of Jaigopal Garodia Vivekananda Higher Secondary School in my hometown, Chennai. I always wanted, like me, students in Chennai should have an opportunity to play and enjoy hockey in their school premises.

Students can play hockey only when the game is played in the schools. It was not often the case, as most schools do not practice hockey nowadays.

I was happy last month when I was called to be among the visiting party of the Hockey ...

09/09/2009

All the efforts we in the Hockey Citizen Group put in in the last eight months blossomed to a satisfying level in the second week of August.

The purpose was to kick off the Hockey League in schools -- play and host matches in school premises, and also to spread knowledge in an exciting manner, and it was accomplished with the conduct of series of Quizzes in all the partner schools.

With the intent of promoting hockey culture, One Thousand Hockey Legs, a project ...

05/09/2009

Kanpur Beckons for OTHL

We at the Hockey Citizen Group are proud to have two elderly volunteers in Kanpur. This industrial city is the most important and obviously biggest city in the sprawling state of Uttar Pradesh. Considering the contribution of UP to the development of hockey, present and past, it was only question of time we turned our eyes on the city.

Mr S K Gupta is 65 plus while Mrs. Mithilesh is 62. They are our new volunteers with a backload of knowle...

22/08/2009

11 Aug: It was a bright hot afternoon at 1500 hrs. The ground was very done by the hosts – Vivekanandha HSS, Lawspet. Slight delay in the match because of certain logistics and the match started rolling.
In front of school ground, Vivekanandha School boys kept the umpire busy and made him signal a goal 5 times in a second half.
...

22/08/2009

11 Aug: 5 teams of 3 children each in a huge hall, with over 50 boys and 50 girls was the set up for the quiz at Vivekanandha HS School at Lawspet.
The quiz was a little tuft for the children but the audience question brought a rather quiet audience to life. The children were keen on trying their luck to win posters announced as prizes for the audience prizes.
Here were the participants:
Team A
Jeevanandham
K Ganesh Kumar
P Magesh Kumar
...

22/08/2009

Aug 11: A packed hall with audience and 5 teams participated in the Quiz at Amalorpavam School. The audience enthusiasm was too high on this day. In beginning, when the Shashank Gupta, who was conducting the quiz, checked with audience’s knowledge of Hockey, it was surprising to see that they could name around 13 players who have played for India.
This was encouragement for the OTHL team who knew that today’s audience is surely well informed.

...

22/08/2009

Aug 12: A very well done ground at Amalopavam was the venue for the 3rd match of OTHL league. Watered, marked, dedicated goal posts and a wonderful audience added to a match where Amalorpavam team was seen on the defensive most of times....

22/08/2009

12/08: There were lessons learnt by the OTHL team with regards to the quiz. A day earlier, the participants didn’t do very well in the quiz. The result: OTHL team worked in the night to come up with a knowledge imparting preliminary presentation to keep all the participants at the same platform. The quiz was also changed a lot, keeping in the mind the preliminary points outlined.

The venue for today was Swami Vivekanandha School, Thirubuvanai, some 27 km away from downtown Puduche...

22/08/2009

13/08: It was the same venue as the day before –Amalorpavam school premises. The visiting team was GHS Kuruvinatham.

Just the presence of Kuruvinatham children on Day 1 and their practice on the ground had made the coaches and children fear a very strong upcoming team – GHS Kuruvinatham. Word spread around very quickly and Amalorpavam HS School on this day knew what they can do to contain a very strong opponent.

A defeat in their own premises a day before, added to ...