Hockey: Inverleith do city proud with bronze medal

Inverleith had been beaten 7-3 by Grove Menzieshill in their semi-final but the Dundonians could not ensure the trophy stayed on Scottish soil as Dutch side HC RGD, with a hat-trick from Glasgow-born Scottish international forward Kenny Bain, won 7-5 to lift the silverware.

Stuart Neave, Inverleith’s coach, took plenty of positives from the event which is in recognition of Inverleith player  Richard Docherty who died from a diabetes-related condition in 2010 at the age of just 27.

“This tournament, and the Grove event over Christmas, have been great for us. We’ve continued to play competitive hockey against teams displaying different styles and we can only learn from this,” said Neave.

Inverleith recovered from their narrow 9-8 defeat on the opening day of the tournament by HC RGD to beat Team Alba 6-4 on Saturday. They had no answer to the power of Grove in the semi-final, however.

Surprise packets Grange opened the scoring in their semi-final through Scottish internationalist Gary Cameron but then it was downhill all the way and they lost 11-6 against a quality line-up with that man Bain netting five goals in the game, while Laurence Docherty,  Richard’s older brother who played for The Netherlands in  the Olympics, was also on the mark.

In the third/fourth place play-off against Grange, Inverleith’s David Guy netted a double and Ross Jamieson and Tom Cousins got two each as Inverleith won comfortably, finishing Grange off with four goals in four second-half minutes.

In the women’s event, the  Richard’s Belles side, which  included Becky Herbert, a member of the Great Britain squad, and several former Olympians including Rhona Simpson and Pauline Stott, won all of their games apart from a 4-4 draw with CALA Edinburgh but the veterans lifted the title. CALA finished second courtesy of a 4-2 win over Inverleith.