Ravi Dhaliwal

Nabha (Patiala), January 2

Sport is all about people and passion. Take out the passion people bring with them to sporting venues and sport will be rendered as hollow as an empty wine bottle. This was much in evidence here today as hundreds of die hard hockey fans thronged the venue to witness final of the 34th All India Liberals Hockey tournament which was won by EME who downed six time winners BSF 5-3 in a pulsating encounter that climaxed a week of hockey – some monotonous and some sublime.

The dreams of EME, considered to be the fittest of all army sides, laying their hands on the coveted trophy – the Gurdev gold cup – for the first time blossomed like a rose on a cold January afternoon.

Keeping in view the intensity of the contest specks of rough play did surface at times but the proceedings were kept well under control. In the early phases, when things had yet to settle down into a groove, the winners’ attack tended to be individualistic, even though Chengappa CK and S Hereng worked hard to create moves. To add to their woes, their principal striker S Munda, fumbled repeatedly.

The only solace was the neat runs by Anthony who often seemed to be busy spraying passes to generate the moves. After a barren first half, things started moving for winners and Gurmeet Singh displayed agility and good ball sense as he repeatedly wove his way into the rival territory. On one occasion, he collected a measured pass from the left, side stepped his way past the midfielder and sent in a shot which beat the goalkeeper but failed to beat the vertical. The ball bounced back into play and was cleared out by defender Raj Singh. EME changed strategy and started using the wings and most of their moves were planned and executed from the sidelines which meant enough space was created for the front line.