Scotland’s Men and Women hockey teams, who are hoping to have their selection confirmed by Commonwealth Games Scotland in the next few weeks, have both been drawn in Pool A of their respective hockey tournaments at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, with both sides facing a challenging set of fixtures.

A total of ten men’s and ten women’s international teams will compete in the hockey tournament in Delhi, with the teams drawn into two pools of five across both competitions. On completion of the pool fixtures, the teams will then play-off against each other in a head-to-head format to decide the medal positions and final standings.

In the men’s tournament, Scotland would face Pakistan in their opening match, after which they would encounter the toughest match of their schedule when they are pitched against the men’s world number one ranked team, Australia. Malaysia and India make up the rest of the teams in Pool A, with the national side drawn against them in their third and fourth matches respectively. With the four teams ranked higher than the Scots in the World Hockey Team Rankings, Russell Garcia’s men are fully aware of the challenge they would face.

Scotland Women will be hoping for the opportunity to extend their current good form to the Commonwealth Games later in the year where they have also been drawn to compete in Pool A of the women’s hockey tournament. First up for Gordon Shepherd’s ladies would be India, before taking on South Africa and Trinidad & Tobago in their second and third pool matches. In their final Pool A fixture, the women would go head-to-head with Australia again, who they ran close in the recent BDO World Cup Qualifier in Chile, only losing by the single goal.

The women’s tournament will begin on Monday 4th October, with the men’s tournament commencing the following day on Tuesday 5th October. The gold medal match for the women will be Wednesday 13 October and the men’s gold medal match will be on Thursday 14 October. The tournaments will be played on two pitches of the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium in the Indian capital.

Women Pool A
Australia
India
South Africa
Trinidad & Tobago
Scotland

Women Pool B
England
Canada
Malaysia
New Zealand
Wales

Men Pool A
Australia
India
Malaysia
Pakistan
Scotland

Men Pool B
Canada
England
New Zealand
South Africa
Trinidad & Tobago

For more information about the draw and match schedule, visit http://www.fihockey.org/