First African Nations Cup

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/* ATLASVILLE, SOUTH AFRICA – The whole idea for this came up one night while i was mying in my bed while competing at IIHF Div II World Championships in Bulgaria. We had just lost our 2nd game and i was thinking, there has to be way of improving our hockey within South Africa. As we are so far away from the rest of the world and everything is funded by the palyers themselves it is difficult to get accross to Europe for any type of pre-world championships training. We looked at going to play in Switzerland for 1 week prior to the tournament at one of the National Teams players clubs but due to financial reasons this fell through.
Upon returning to RSA i decided to do some research and came accross the information about the Arab Cup. I then got in touch with Karim Kerbouche and we got chatting. I asked him if Algeria might be interested in playing in an African Championships and this is where the idea came alive.
 
Thanks to the help of 2 other players within the South African league we have managed to pull this together in a matter of weeks.
 
The two players are Barry Tandy who has done all the work in regards to documentation required and Chris Engelbrecht who is charge of the Logo design and any other promotional material for the tournament.
 
This is the first event of its kind within the African Continent. The very first addition of the African Nations Cup of Ice Hockey will be contested between 3 Countries. The Countries are South Africa, Algeria and Morocco.
 
The tournament is scheduled to take place from Saturday 19th September to Saturday 26th September 2009. The venue is Festival Mall Ice Rink which is situated within Festival Shopping Centre in Kempton Park.   The games will be played from 17:15 to 19:30 daily.
 
There will be practice sessions every morning starting at 7am with RSA having the early morning practices. Anyone who would like to attend these sessions and watch the teams is more than welcome as they will be free. The schedule for the 2009 edition of the African Nations Cup of Ice Hockey is as Follow: Saturday 19 September 2009 – RSA vs Algeria 17:15 Sunday 20th September 2009 – RSA vs Morocco 17:15 Monday 21st September 2009 – Morocco vs Algeria 17:15 Tuesday 22nd September 2009 – RSA vs Algeria 17:15 Wednesday 23rd September 2009 – OFF DAY Thursday 24th September 2009 – Algeria Vs Morocco 17:15 Friday 25th September 2009 – RSA vs Morocco 17:15 Saturday 26th September 2009 – Final 17:15 The final game will be contested by the two teams with the most wins or points at the end of the 6 preliminary games. There will be a after party on the Saturday Evening after the game. The venue will be determined at a later stage. The rosters of the teams competing in the 2009 addition will be posted as soon as they are available. There is little known about the Algerian and Moroccan National teams other then they competed in the ARAB Cup in 2008. Both National teams have a number of players applying their trade as semi-professionals and professions in teams in Europe as well as in Canada. The South African team will be made up of players who all play locally for this year. We are hoping that with some backing we will be able to get our players from Canada, Switzerland and Scotland for the 2010 installment of the championships. We hope to have support and to fill the rink every night and are looking forward to a large spectator contingent for each game.
 
Currently a website is in the process of been created for this specific tournament.
 
Keep your eyes posted for more information and the web address.
 
Contact gary.bock@prohockeynews.com .

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