Hockey: Cosmopolitan Cala set their sights on winning promotion

Promotion is the target for the ambitious CALA Edinburgh club as they take on Waverley Inveresk Trinity in their opening Subway Second Division fixture today at Meggatland.

CALA ran out of luck last season, and having topped the division they subsequently lost 2-0 to Aberdeen Asset Management in a promotion play-off.

There is a cosmopolitan ring about CALA for the season ahead, New Zealander Mike Rae takes over as captain and Carlos Linero has joined from Valencia. There have been other pre-season signings, the mercurial Steven Glass has signed from Dundee Wanderers, while keeper Colin Johnston (Grange), Fraser Sands (George Watsons) and Sean Hadfield (Waverley) are also recruited.

David Guy, last season's top scorer with over half the club's strikes, predicts that goals will be more spread out this year. "When you add a player like Steven Glass into a team with exciting young forwards like Simon Waugh and Cory Hastings, things can only get better," he said. Sixteen-year-old Waugh had already made an impact in their final pre-season fixture against Leeds last Sunday, coming off the bench to score a hat-trick in a 4-3 victory.

Meanwhile, the Scotland Commonwealth Games squad drew 1-1 with top German side Mannheimer in the final build-up for Delhi. Grove striker Aimee Clark opened the scoring for the Scots before the Germans equalised after the interval and although further chances fell to Sam Judge and Emily Maguire from a penalty corner, the Scots had to settle for a draw.