TWO Penarth Indoor Hockey teams are set to compete for the Wales National Indoor Hockey Finals this weekend.

Penarth Ladies Hockey Club and Penarth Hockey Club will hope to beat the competition to be named the winners on Sunday, January 31.

The first matches of the competition, which will be played at University of South Wales’ Caerleon Campus, take place on Saturday.

The action-packed two-day tournament will see the top teams in Wales battle it out in a round-robin style tournament with up to five matches over the course of each day, a gruelling competition format that will test even the most seasoned hockey players.

With many of the teams having past and present international players and hundreds of goals scored during the course of the South Wales League in the lead up to this weekend, the indoor finals are set to offer exciting fast-paced end-to-end action.

Both the Men’s and Women’s finals are kindly supported by the Welsh Hockey Umpires Association, who will have many of their top indoor umpires and officials on show.

The Women’s Indoor Final is the culmination of the South Wales Women’s Indoor League, which has been played over three weekends in January.

The League featured 11 teams, plus Senior Women, and it involved two Divisions competing over 30 hours of play in 28 matches across five days. There were 137 players and 18 umpires who took part, and an incredible 177 goals on the way to this weekend’s final.

It’s now down to just five teams to battle it out for the cup. Dysynni Hockey Club will be representing North Wales and for them the finals are highly anticipated, as when they qualified last summer in a separate tournament.

Cardiff & Met and Dowlais make a welcome return to the finals, whilst Howardian and Penarth will want to improve on last year, where they finished second and third respectively. Last year’s winners Swansea City HC are not in the tournament this year, so there’s all to play for in the fight to become Welsh Champions.

The National Indoor Men’s Finals will see six teams compete over 10 games to determine who will become Welsh Champions and represent Wales in the EuroHockey Indoor Competition next season.

Current EuroHockey representatives, and holders, Cardiff & Met will be the favourites to win and retain their title after a successful first half in their outdoor league, sitting top of the EHL Conference West.

Penarth, a new addition to the indoor scene, will be looking to cause an upset after putting together an all-star squad that saw them win the South Wales League.

New in this year’s competitions is the unknown entity that is Dragons Hockey Club. Formed especially to take part in this year’s National final, Dragons will be representing North Wales and will be looking to show the South Clubs the extent of their talent.

The other teams who will be challenging for top spot are Whitchurch, Swansea City Hockey Club and Gwent HC who have all represented Wales in Europe in previous years.