Anything hockey in Punjab is a big thing. And now the real big thing — National Championship — is being staged there. Despite short notice for organization and utterly wrong timed — due to simultaneous national camp and festival season — the heat is expected to pick up at Jalandhar this week in the ongoing National Championship competition.

12 teams – 8 from State Units and 4 from Institutions — have assembled here to take part in the second and final leg, very inappropriately named as Super League. Outsider might be confused this Super League with Premier Hockey League, but that is a trivia one can easily ignore.

The 12 teams in the ‘Super League’ are divided into four pools of three each, with the winner of each pool making the semifinals. The league phase will end on October 30. After a day’s rest, the semifinals will be played on November 2, and the final the next day.

The Pools: A: Indian Airlines, Punjab, Namdhari XI; B: Railways, Tamil Nadu, Indian Oil; C: Mumbai, Delhi, Air-India; D: Chandigarh, Services and Punjab and Sind Bank.

Stick2hockey.com is not a news based website but, as you all know, is feature-based. In tune with this, salient aspects of the final leg of the National Championship will be brought to you soon.