The trio of De­fence Force (men's Open), Mag­no­lias (women's Open) and Queen's Park Crick­et Club (QPCC) in the vet­er­ans Over-40 will put their ti­tles on the line when the 20th edi­tion of the Ven­tures Hock­ey Club In­ter­na­tion­al In­vi­ta­tion­al In­door Hock­ey Tour­na­ment flicks off at the Wood­brook Youth Fa­cil­i­ty, Hamil­ton-Hold­er Street, Wood­brook, Wednes­day from 5 pm.

In the men's Open Di­vi­sion, the Army/Coast-Guard com­bi­na­tion team who edged QPCC 4-3 on sud­den-death penal­ty-strokes shoot-out af­ter a 2-2 draw to se­cure the 2024 ti­tle will first come up against T&T Po­lice Ser­vice, Paragon, Bar­ba­di­ans UWI Black Birds and Notre in their five-team round-robin se­ries from which the top two will ad­vance to the semi­fi­nals while T&T De­fence Force, Fa­ti­ma, UWI Li­ons, Malvern and Saints of Guyana will do bat­tle in Group A for the top two places.

Mag­no­lias lift­ed last year's women's ti­tle cour­tesy a 5-1 de­feat of Paragon and will start a bid for a re­peat of their ti­tle tri­umph in to­mor­row's open­ing match of the com­pe­ti­tion from 5 pm against long-time ri­val and host club Ven­tures in Group A be­fore fac­ing T&T Po­lice Ser­vice 'A' and UWI Black Birds.

Group B com­pris­es Paragon, T&T Po­lice Ser­vice 'B'. Saints and UWI Li­ons.

In the Vet­er­ans Over-40 Di­vi­sion, QPCC, 3-2 win­ners over Po­lice in last year's de­cider will come up against Law­men, Notre Dame and Fa­ti­ma at the end of which the top team will qual­i­fy for the fi­nal, while the sec­ond and third-placed clubs will meet in the lone semi­fi­nal for the right to con­test the gold medal con­test.

Teams and group­ings

Women's Open Di­vi­sion:

Group A: Mag­no­lias, Ven­tures, TT Po­lice Ser­vice 'A', UWI Black­birds

Group B: Paragon, TT Po­lice Ser­vice, Saints, UWI Li­ons

Men's Open Di­vi­sion:

Group A: TT De­fence Force, Saints, Fa­ti­ma, UWI Li­ons, Malvern

Group B: QPCC, TT Po­lice Ser­vice 'B', Paragon, UWI Black­birds, Notre Dame

Vet­er­ans Over-40: QPCC, TTPS, Notre Dame, Fa­ti­ma

Tour­na­ment Fix­ures:

Wednes­day, Jan­u­ary 8:

Women's Open A: Ven­tures vs Mag­no­lias, 5 pm

Men's Open A: Malvern vs Fa­ti­ma, 5.45 pm

Women's Open B: TT Po­lice Ser­vice 'B' vs Paragon, 6.30 pm

Vet­er­ans Over-40: QPCC vs TT Po­lice Ser­vice, 7.15 pm

Men's Open A: TT De­fence Force vs UWI Li­ons, 8 pm

Men's Open B: QPCC vs Notre Dame, 8.45 pm

Men's Open B: Paragon vs T&T Po­lice Ser­vice, 9.30 pm

Thurs­day, Jan­u­ary 9:

Women's Open B: TT Po­lice Ser­vice 'B' vs UWI Li­ons, 5 pm

Men's Open B: Paragon vs Notre Dame, 5.45 pm

Vet­er­ans Over-40: QPCC vs Fa­ti­ma,6.30 pm

Women's Open A: UWI Black Birds vs TT Po­lice Ser­vice 'A', 7.15 pm

Men's Open A: TT De­fence Force vs Fa­ti­ma, 8 pm

Men's Open B: TT Po­lice Ser­vice vs UWI Black Birds, 8.45 pm

Men's Open A: Saints vs UWI Li­ons, 9.30 pm

Fri­day, Jan­u­ary 10:

Men's Open B: QPCC vs Paragon, 5 pm

Women's Open B: UWI Li­ons vs Paragon, 5.45 pm

Men's Open A: Malvern vs TT De­fence Force, 6.30 pm

Vet­er­ans Over-40: QPCC vs Notre Dame, 7.15 pm

Men's Open B: UWI Black Birds vs Notre Dame, 8 pm

Women's Open B: TT Po­lice Ser­vice 'B' vs Saints, 8.45 pm

Men's Open A: TT De­fence Force vs Fa­ti­ma, 9.30 pm