Meredith fears confirmed as Irish face costly trip to Malaysia

Irish hockey chiefs were left with a dual conundrum yesterday following the confirmation of dates and venues for next year’s Champions Challenge I.

Both the men’s and women’s tournaments will clash directly with the Irish Hockey League (IHL) finals weekend, meaning a rescheduling of the current 2013/14 calendar — which took the Irish Hockey Association a couple of months to draft — is likely required to accommodate the club game’s showpiece event.

The men’s CC1 gets under way on April 26 with the women’s event starting a day later; both tournaments finish up on May 4, the proposed date for the IHL finals.