Less than two months after being crowned national champions in their respective men and women 2019 T&T Hockey Board Indoor Championship Open Division champions, Police (men) and Shandy Carib Magnolias (women) will put their titles up for grabs when the 2020 edition of the tournament flicks off at the Woodbrook Youth Facility, Hamilton-Holder Street, Woodbrook on Saturday.
This year's competition has been brought forward to aid the senior national men and women team players in preparing for their respective Indoor Pan American Cup in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA from March 25 to 29, a qualifier for next year's FIH Indoor World Cup at a venue and date to be determined.
The local men's team who qualified to the 2017 World Cup in Germany and are the reigning Pan American Indoor champions will face host USA, Canada and Argentina from which one team will qualify to the World Cup, and in the women's six-nation qualifiers in Lancaster, T&T tackles USA, Canada, Argentina, Puerto Rico and Uruguay from which one team will also qualify to the World Cup.
Last November in the national men's indoor final at Woodbrook, Jordan Reynos scored twice to lead star-studded Police past Defence Force 5-1.
Featuring a host of national past and present players, Police also got goals from Dwain Quan Chan, Solomon Eccles, and Akim Toussaint while Marcus James netted the lone item for Defence Force.
The lawmen will get their 2020 campaign off and running against Queen's Park Cricket Club, third-placed finishers last year after being crowned champions in 2018 from 8 pm on Saturday.
The Parkites are also coming off a victory in their recent Guyana and UWI Invitationals, and a runner-up spot behind Defence Force in the just concluded 17th Ventures Hockey Club Tournament.
Magnolias, fresh of their title run in the Ventures Tournament will start their defence on Sunday against long-time rivals Ventures from 4 pm, but before that Malvern, second last year after a 3-6 loss in the final tackles Ventures on Saturday from 5 pm.
In last year's women's final, Savannah De Freitas scored a hat-trick, Tracey Lee-James added a double, and Rebekah Ngui the other for Magnolias in their defeat of Malvern.
The other teams who will be defending their titles include Police (Veterans), Notre Dame (Trinity Men), Harvard Checkers (Trinity Women), Paragon (Under-19 Boys), and Magnolias (Under-19 Girls).
Police claimed the Mixed Veterans crown beating QPCC 5-0 led by a double from Solomon Eccles and one each from Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith, Nicholas Wren, and Roger Daniel.
The final day of competition flicked off with the Under-19 Division Boys and Girls finals with Paragon and Magnolias expectedly lifting crowns over Malvern (7-2), and Paragon (3-1) respectively.
And on Saturday night, Notre Dame lifted the Trinity Men's Division title courtesy a 3-2 sudden-death penalty-stroke shootout win over QPCC while Harvard Checkers defeated the Dames 6-2 in the Trinity Women's decider.
Today's Fixtures
Under-19 Boys: Shape vs Malvern, 1 pm
Trinity Men: QPCC vs Carib, 2 pm
Trinity Women: Harvard Checkers vs Paragon, 3 pm
Veterans: Shape vs Fatima, 4 pm; Defence Force vs Police, 6 pm
Open Women: Ventures vs Malvern, 5 pm
Open Men: Fatima vs Paragon, 7 pm; Police vs QPCC, 8 pm .
Tomorrow's matches
Under-19 Boys: Fatima vs QPCC, 1 pm
Trinity Men: Police vs Notre Dame, 2 pm; Shape vs Malvern, 3 pm
Open Women: Magnolias vs Ventures, 4 pm
Veterans: QPCC vs Notre Dame, 5 pm
Open Men: Defence Force vs Malvern, 6 pm