Chandigarh, December 23
“Don ko pakarna mushkil hi nahi namumkin hai,” says Don Prinse while quoting from a famous Bollywood film ‘Don’ in broken Hindi.

A centre left-out for the PHL’s Sher-e-Jalandhar, Prinse is working hard learning Hindi from his Indian teammates.

He is among a few foreign players in the team and picking up Hindi film dialogues and using them when they get a chance.

Don has been playing for the under-18 and under-21 teams in Holland clubs since he was just five years old.

“This is my second stint with Sher-e-Jalandhar. I have gained in confidence from my last appearance in the PHL and have worked hard on my weak points,” he says.

“Young players are improving upon their basic techniques and also helping raise the standard of the game here. Movies like ‘Chak De India’ have helped build keen interest in the minds of people. This will stand Indian hockey in good stead.”

Talking about the preparation of his team, Don says though the players miss the expertise of Baljeet Dhillon, the team has stars performers like Salman Akbar.

“We are working hard on our fitness and will look to winning first few matches, which will help boost the confidence of the team and lead us to the semis,” he said.

The PHL is certainly playing a major role in promoting young players, he claims, adding that in the presence of large crowds and television cameras, local players strive to give it their best shot and make it to the national squad.

“I am trying to learn Hindi and have already picked up a few sentences - ‘Sat Sri Akal’, ‘Khana vadiha hai’ to name a few,” he quips.

Chandigarh, December 23
The Indian hockey coach Joaquim Carvalho is hopeful to qualify the all-important Olympic qualifiers, scheduled to be held in March next year at Santiago, Chile.

Carvalho is in town to assess the performance of the players, participating in the ongoing PHL at Hockey Stadium, Sector 42, here.

Expressing happiness over the improvement of the team’s performance in recently held tournaments, the coach said this was the result of clinical preparation schedule.

“I am not in favour of long camps just before a big tournament so we developed a complete cycle of camp-tournament-camp training schedule for the team, which starts paying dividends”, said Carvalho.

“This year, we had played four big tournaments, including Azlan Shah, Champions Challenge, Champions Trophy and Asia Cup. Before every tourney, we held special training camps. Apart from the ongoing PHL, two more tournaments-Triangular Series (Belgium, Pakistan and India) at Chennai and Australia tour- are to be played by us. Still the probable have to attend three more camps before the qualifiers. So I am sure there will not be any shortcoming in the training of our players before taking on the teams at Chile”, said Carvalho.

Apart from this, the coach is also working hard to improve the level of final 10 minutes in the game. “I have seen that in the final 10 minutes, we generally give up and lose. But now I am preparing the players to give more in the final slot of the game to overpower the rivals. For this purpose, special emphasis is being given on the rehabilitation and fitness of the players”, said Carvalho.

On the question of focussing more on youngsters than experienced players, the coach said, “For me big names do not matter. What matters is only performance. For performer, age is no deterrent. Undoubtedly, we need young legs in the game but doors are not shut to senior performers.”

The coach is disappointed, as the coaches of PHL teams are not giving chance to young players to showcase their talent in the league.

“They (the young players) should be given proper chance with specific role, otherwise the purpose of having them here would be defeated”, said Carvalho.

Chandigarh, December 23
St. Peter’s open Tennis Tournament will be held from December 29, 2007, to January 3, 2008, under the following category:

Boys: U-12, U-14 And U-18, Girls: U-12, U-16 And U-18, Men singles and doubles. Men singles and doubles (35 years and above), Veterans’ singles and doubles (50 years and above). The late date of the entries is December 28, 2007, at St. Peter’s School, Sector 37.

NEIGHBOURHOOD

Seminar on Gandhian philosophy
Tribune News Service

Ambala, December 23
District court gave life imprisonment to Amarjit Kaur on charge of murdering her husband Pavitr Singh. The court also sentenced similar imprisonment to Ravinder Singh who is said to be the beloved of Amarjit.

According to prosecution in August 2006, Amarjit with Ravinder had murdered her husband by hitting an iron rod on his head. Later Amarjit concocted a false story and informed the police that her husband died of electric current incidentally.

The brother of the deceased filed a complaint with the police alleging that Amarjit with Ravinder’s help had murdered his brother. The police arrested Ravinder and Amarjit in this regard and during investigation it was revealed that both of them were involved in eliminating Pavitr Singh.

Ambala, December 23
Police DAV Public School, Ambala City organised its annual prize distribution function today.

The IG, Ambala range K.K. Sindhu was the chief guest on this occasion. Chairman of local DAV management Rajinder Nath, regional director Reena Nagrath and SP, Ambala K Ramanna were also present on this occasion. The students of the school presented a colourful cultural show in which Haryanvi dance, skit on female foeticide and patriotic songs were there.

While addressing the students Sindhu said DAV institutions had been doing remarkable work in the field of education. He said besides academic education the students should take active part in cultural and sports activities. Principal Vikash Kohli presented the annual achievements of the school assured the parents of the students that the institution would take every effort for the all round developments of their kids.

NSS CAMP: Ten days NSS camp of Government College Mohali started yesterday. It was inaugurated by Gurmeet Singh Nimian, general secretary Press Club Mohali. He is also formal volunteer and president of the Old Student Association of the college. As per the organiser of the camp, 135 volunteers are taking part in the camp.

The themes of the camp is “healthy youth healthy India”. During the camp the main emphasis will be on levelling of the parks and grounds, cleanness and beautification of the college camps. Apart from this declamation, slogan writing, painting competition, quiz competition on personality development, social services, de-addiction, awareness about Aids, environment and pollution, blood donation, eye donation, traffic rules, foeticide and dowry will be held during the camp. A socio economic and cultural survey of Shastri colony and Jhujhar nagar will be conducted. The camp is being organised by Dr Baldev Singh Gill, Prof Ashwani Kumar, Dr Devinder Kaur, Prof Ghansham Singh. Narinjan Singh, Iqbal Singh, Sanbeer Kapoor and Yadwinder Kaur were elected as camp commanders and Iqbal Singh took oath on behalf of the all the volunteers.

FESTIVE SEASON: Sant Isher Singh Public School, Phase VII, wore a festive look as Christmas was celebrated with great fervour by students.

Lots of creativity was witnessed in the school. Students also decorated the Christmas tree and sang Christmas carols. Pre-nursery students got dressed up like Santa Claus. Gifts were distributed among students by Santa Claus. A community lunch was arranged for which students had brought tempting dishes. A number of competitions were also organised.

X-TRAVAGANZA: Old Yadavindrians Association (OYA) organised X-travaganza-2007- party of the year at the grounds of Yadavindra Public School here yesterday evening.

YPS alumni walked down the memory lane at the grand evening in which a large number of old Yadavindrians, including those working abroad reached the school to participate in the annual ball. Gurpreet Aulakh, secretary OYA, said an ethnic dance group, which travelled with Gurdas Mann, had been invited to regale old Yadavindrians. A fire works show was also organised which lasted for about half-an-hour. Dr Harish Dhillon, principal YPS, won the OYA SMS quest from a total of 200 participants while Ashish Goyal, working with the Indian Information Services, was the runners up. Dhillon was given a prize by J.S. Teja, president OYA.

Fatehgarh Sahib, December 23
Baba Jorawar Singh and Baba Fateh Singh Football and Kabbadi Tournaments organised by Dashmesh Sports Club got underway at Mata Gujri College here today. The tournaments, dedicated to the founder member of the club, Kirpal Singh Libra, were inaugurated by Baba Mann Singh Phowa wale.

Speaking on the occasion, Baba Mann Singh appreciated the effort of the club office-bearers in holding sports tournaments. He also announced Rs 1 lakh for holding the tournaments, besides Rs 13,000 each to the winners of football and kabaddi tournaments.

Gurmohan Singh Walia, college principal and senior president of the club, said eight teams had been taking part in the football tournament while the kabaddi tournament would be a contest between four teams. He said the winners of the football tournament would be awarded Rs 51,000 while runners-up would get Rs 31,000. Similarly, the winners of kabaddi tournament would get Rs 31,000 while runners-up would be awarded with cash prize of Rs 21,000.

Meanwhile, in the inaugural football matches, PSEB, Hoshiarpur, beat JCT Academy, Phagwara, 3-1.

Patiala, December 23
Fine batting by Prabjot Singh 56 and 4 for 13 by Sukhminder Manga helped Black Elephant (MES) Cricket Club Patiala to defeat DMW (Rly) Patiala by 89 runs in the first match of 7th Dhruve Pandove Memorial (under-14) League-cum-knock out tournament played in military ground here today.

Brief Score:

Black Elephant (MES) Cricket Club Patiala 187 for 6 in 35 overs (Prabjot Singh 56, Vikrant 20 Kanwar Pal Singh 31, Sukhminder 21) Gopal Hellan 2 for 22 Sanveer 1/27)

DMW (Rly) Patiala 98 all out in 35 overs (Anmol Malhotra 24, Tanish Gill 23) (Sukhminder Manga 4/13, Ashish 2/16).

In another match which was played at YPS Ground, Mohali Coaching Center defeated YPS Patiala by 68 runs in first league match.

Mohali team managed to score 211 runs for 7 in 35 overs. YPS team all out in 31.5 overs after making 143 runs for team.

Brief Score:

Mohali Coaching Centre 211 for 7 in 35 overs.

(Subeer 78, Anmoljit 44, Shine Sharma 28) (Karan Kaila 3/32, Rajeshwar Brar 2/42, Ayush Goyal 1/34). YPS Patiala 143 all out in 31.5 overs. (Ayush Goel 36, Karan Kaila 22, Kushan 20) (Munish 4/33, Mayank 2/14).