P&O Cup set to return and complete Rays pre-season with double Dutch weekend

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 The Coventry Blaze have today confirmed the revival of the P&O Cup - first played in Hull in 09/10 - with the announcement that the third year of the tournament - set for September 3 and 4 - will feature the Excel Hull Stingrays, ownership rivals and hosts the Blaze and Dutch sides Tilburg Trappers and Geleen Eaters.

The tournament will end Sylvain Cloutier's Stingrays four game pre-season for the 11/12 EIHL season the week after their home and away double header against the Blaze on August 27 and 28 and will see them take on Tilburg on September 3 and Geleen Eaters for the first time on September 4, both at the Skydome Arena, Convetry.

The Rays, under previous owners Mike and Sue Pack, organised and won the inaugural event following up a 4-3 win over Tilburg with a exciting 3-2 final victory over EIHL rivals Nottingham Panthers, who had previously thrashed the Trappers.

09/10 P&O Cup - Stingrays v Nottingham

However, having originally planned for the tournament to return to Hull last summer - in a renewed format that allegedly may have seen Belfast Giants join the original three teams - the Rays were forced to pull out after owners the Packs withdrew their funding of the team.

The tournament continued in a different format regardless with Nottingham edging Tilburg 7-5 at the NIC having initially lead 5-0, with the Dutch side continued their weekend with a fixture against Paul Thompson's Blaze.

This years competition, once agian sponsored by P&O Ferries, will see former Humberside Hawk and current Geleen Eaters coach Chris Eimers return to the UK.

© 9 Management

Last season, Eimers Eaters side - containing former EIHLers Jason Tejchma, Ryan Crane and Marc Lefebvre - finished sixth in the Eredivisie but reached the semi-final stage of the playoffs. Meanwhile, Tilburg ended the year as runners-up in both the league and playoffs, losing out to Joshua Mizerek's HYS Den Haag side in both the regular-season and post-season.

This years Stingrays two-week, four game pre-season is a marked improvement on last campaign, when the Rays were deprived of any warm-up fixtures and forced to move the beginning of their Elite League campaign back to October following the Packs sudden departure and the new ownership groups takeover.

Nevertheless, while it is good news the pre-season competition has been kept alive there have understandably been concerns raised about the Stingrays playing two pre-games in Coventry. Attendance will likely be poor in the Skydome for the two early fixtures featuring the Rays, and with both Dutch sides presumably entering the country at the P&O terminal in Hull it would have made more sense to keep the tournament close-by, particularly after the successful first tournament.

Still, there may have been other influences that affected the decision to stage the competition in Coventry, such as the availability of the Hull Arena, and the early weekend away for Cloutier and his squad will allow time to bond ahead of a 56 game regular season campaign.