Kakungulu Memorial continued its new hardline stance on how clubs can access hockey players studying at the school.
Though some clubs have not received any formal communication from the school, it is seems the lenient regime of letting players move out freely to represent their clubs in weekend fixtures at Lugogo is suspended – at least for now.
Wananchi HDF (Hockey Dreams Foundation) suffered from this over a week ago. The school declined to let students that represent the side leave the premises on their own ahead of the first leg of their women’s Uganda Cup semifinal with Weatherhead and insisted they be picked by a club authority.
HDF leaders sorted themselves out late and the team had to lose the game 20-0 by forfeiture according to the rules which were designed to deter clubs from giving walkovers.
This past weekend, in the men’s National Hockey League, Badgers had their players stopped from leaving the school and therefore had to field only 10 players in a game they drew 1-1 with Kampala Hockey Club (KHC) Originals on Saturday.
“We have heard that the school is not happy with the discipline of some players. Some of them leave school for matches and after that they go home or return to school at night. We have heard no official communication but we understand there are more concerns about the conduct of the girls and that has affected the boys too,” one Badgers official shared.
Badgers had to play defender Julius Sseruyange in goal and in some moments in the first half he looked a natural as he kept Originals at bay.
However, at the start of the second half, Badgers’ 10-men recollected and a little wave of pressure resulted into a couple of penalty corners. Originals’ keeper Bosco Ochan protested against one and was suspended for five minutes.
Harold Ntale capitalized with his signature slap shot to get the opening goal of the game for Badgers in the 36th minute. This time it was helped towards goal after taking a deflection off Originals runner Joel Muwanguzi’s stick.
Originals’ positive reaction paid off immediately. Habib Sewava fed the ball into Faustine Ojangole, who was playing as a forward. OJ as he is popularly known, froze the defence as he shaped to hit then made a calculated finish at the near post to make it 1-1 in the 37th minute.
From there on, both sides had their chances to win it. Originals were undone by their poor finishing upfront while Ochan returned inspired from his suspension to stop every kind of attack, especially from penalty corners, that Badgers conjured up.
Badgers remain 6th on 21 points – just three points ahead of Originals and two behind 5th-placed Rockets.
Earlier, Thunders relied on second half braces from Swabur Kizito and Robert Lubangakene to beat 9th-placed Weatherhead Titans 4-1 and rise to fourth with 24 points. Andrew Bisoborwa got the latter’s consolation with about four minutes to play.
Meanwhile, a scheduling mix-up with National Council of Sports (NCS) forced Uganda Hockey Association (UHA) to postpone Sunday’s matches to Independence Day – October 9.
Weatherhead were due to meet Rockets while leaders Wananchi were to play Makerere University, and Kampala Hockey Club (KHC) Stallions eyed a goal-fest against bottom-placed Wananchi Wabalozi.
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Results
KHC Originals 1-1 Badgers
Thunders 4-1 Weatherhead Titans
Men’s Table
Wananchi 14 13 1 0 152 19 40
KHC Stallions 14 10 3 1 85 19 33
Weatherhead 14 10 2 2 118 17 32
Thunders 15 8 0 7 53 46 24
Rockets 14 7 2 5 50 43 23
Badgers 15 6 3 6 57 36 21
KHC Originals 15 5 3 7 37 73 18
Makerere University 14 3 1 10 18 63 10
Weatherhead Titans 15 2 1 12 24 73 7
Wananchi Wabalozi 14 0 0 14 4 211 0