25th All India Dashmesh Hawks Hockey Tournament – Day One
The 25th All India Dashmesh Hawks Hockey Tournament started with a celebratory festival organized for the Silver Jubilee occasion of the event at the Hawks Stadium Bela Road in Rupnagar, India On April 13.
This memorable ceremony was inaugurated by the Chief Guest Ch. Swarna Ram, who is the Minister of Technical Education, Social Security and Women and Child Development of Punjab.
For the Silver Jubilee Dashmesh Hawks All India Hockey Festival, a Holy torch was brought from Gurdwara Shri Bhatha Sahib by ten young hockey players of the organising club, Hawks Club Rupnagar. This torch was presented to the honourable guest along with
the other guests attending the festival. The torch is intended to be kept lit until the closing of the tournament, after which it will be sent back to the Gurdwara Sahib.
A popular dance group P.A.P Jalandhar appeared with 50 Bhangra dancers to entertain the public present at the venue and at home through the media coverage. Moreover, more than hundred young students from the Netaji Model School were found cheering with hockey
sticks in hand, singing the Chak De India song.
The Chief Guest made an announcement for rewarding the hockey players of the Punjab who bring home the Olympic medals. A total of Rs. 2.5 crore for winning a gold, Rs 1.1 crore for winning a silver and Rs. 51 lac for winning a bronze medal at the 2012 London
Olympics.
The day one of the tournament featured a match between Sport Hostel Lucknow and PSEB Patiala. The tournament matches were opened by SSP Rupnagar Jatinder Singh Aulakh.
The opening match was destined to be dominated by the Lucknow hockey stars, with two short-corners being awarded one after the other in the fifth and seventh minute of the first half. However, they failed to score any shot.
In the 15th minute, The Patiala strikers earned a penalty-corner, but got denied by the opponent’s goal-keeper. However, PSEB’s Davinder Singh was found in action in the last ticking minute of the first half, delivering a score on the board at
1-0.
During the second half, Lucknow’s striker, Kamran Khan, levelled the score in the early minutes of the match, setting the scoreboard on 1-1.
Even though, both the teams strived hard to take up the lead goal, but none of the two were successful, closing the match at 1-1 goal score.
For the tie-breaking, penalty shoot-outs were conducted in which PSEB scored four strokes, whereas Sport Hostel Lucknow only managed to attain two, concluding the game with 5-3 score win for PSEB over the Sport Hostel Lucknow.
The matches scheduled for day two of the tournament are:
PSEB PATIALA versus RCF KAPURTHALA
CISF Delhi versus Baba Farid Club FARIDKOT
EME Jalandhar versus SAI Bhopal
The 25th All India Hawks Dashmesh Hockey Tournament started from April 13-17 and is considered as one of India’s most prestigious hockey tournaments.
The General Secretary of the Rupnagar Hawks Club, S.S. Saini shared in a press conference that the tournament got originated in 1972 with an objective to promote hockey in the area. The 24th edition of this tournament was held in 1996 which could not be
organised due to many reasons. However, this year it got restored and is being commenced in the club’s own stadium.
According to Aulakh, the tournament has been declared as grade-one by the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) and has many national and international top players of the country as participants this year.
Tags: