Hockey: Reading raring to go
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Your support makes all the difference.Reading, this season's National League winners, defend their HA Cup title tomorrow against Teddington, who finished second to them in the League. A victory for Reading would place them alongside Hounslow as the only team to achieve the League and Cup double in the same season.
With both clubs already assured of European competition next season, the final at the National Stadium could be a classic high scoring occasion and go some way towards answering the question hockey is always asking: can the game become more marketable?
Tomorrow's contest will put in opposition two of the principal contenders for the position as chief coach to the English team, which has been vacant since David Whitaker resigned a year ago and at last is expected to be advertised shortly.
One is Reading's Jon Copp, who was the late Great Britain replacement for Whitaker in last summer's Olympics, and the other is Teddington's Jon Royce, who took the recent England squad to Karachi for the Five Nations Golden Jubilee tournament and is the current under-21 coach. Their involvement in the final will be watched with interest.
On the playing front, Teddington will be at full strength and on a four- figure bonus from their sponsor, the Acer Computer Co, with the Welsh international Tyron Moore playing his last game for the club after 10 years. Reading will be without the British Olympic goalkeeper Simon Mason, who is recovering from a back operation, and also the England Under-21 centre-half Manpreet Kochar.
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