The Sixth Lion’s Cup Field Hockey tournament that was held at Tamanawis Park in Surrey from August 23 to 25 proved to be a huge success with more than 30,000 fans coming to see this event on all three days.
The Surrey Lion’s Cup is a prestigious international tournament and this year teams from India, USA, Germany, Canada and players from England took part.
“It was heartening to see so many people coming and enjoying these fiercely-contested hockey matches. The matches were all played in good spirits and the standard of hockey displayed was superb. I want to thank all the fans, volunteers and the sponsors for making this tournament such a big success. In all we gave away $20,000 in cash prizes to all the winners,” said Surinder Hehar, Director of the tournament.
Sr Balbir Singh, Olympian and triple gold medallist was given Lifetime Achievement Award at this tournament.
Another highlight of the tournament was that this year four women’s teams also participated and both astro turf fields were used at Tamanawis Park in Surrey for the tournament.
On all three days food was served to the fans free of charge and the tournament ended with a cultural performance.
This year saw the India Club take on the UBC Thunderbirds for the Ladies Open Championships.
At the end of regulation time the game was tied and then went into an exciting shoot out with UBC coming out on top.
In the men’s social final match, 1st place went to Surrey Lions B with a win over Team Victoria. This game saw the younger faster Victoria team take an early lead only to have Lions come back and tie the game. The team from Surrey then took the lead but with 0:01 second left Victoria tied it all up. In the shoot out Surrey Lions emerged winners.
The Men’s Open final match was between Surrey Lions A and The Canadian National U-21 team. This was a very exciting game with the National team taking the early lead in the first half and in the second half, Surrey Lions A fought back to win the game and become this year’s Champions.