Banbridge duo included in Ireland's World Cup hockey panel

Local Banbridge hockey stars Eugene Magee and Matthew Bell have been selected to represent Ireland at the upcoming hockey World Cup being staged in Bhubaneswar India from November 28 until December 16.

By The Newsroom

Published 14th Nov 2018, 21:04 BST

Updated 14th Nov 2018, 22:21 BST

Ireland feature in group B in Bhubaneswar along with Australia, China and England. The first match on November 30 is against the world number one team Australia. Realistically the Irish will do well to get any sort of result from this game.

However, they will be confident of defeating China on 4th December and complete their pool matches on 7th December against England who they defeated twice during a recent tournament in Valencia.

Magee has currently represented Ireland on 273 occasions and is the record cap holder for the country while Matthew has played 90 times for Ireland.

Both men are already looking forward to the challenges the tournament will throw up. Hockey in India is only surpassed in support by cricket so all the games will be played in front of fanatical fans at the 20000 seater Kalinga Stadium.