Butali Warriors and Lakers Hockey Club are the new Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) men and women Premier League champions.

The two sides bagged the titles at weekend after a tough season that was marked with uncertainty especially without a sure field of play due to the decapitated state of the City Park Hockey Stadium.

Butali recaptured the title they had lost to Western Jaguars last season after topping the table with 42 points.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFjoiwR1mLk

Butali won 13 matches, drew three and lost two among them yesterday’s 3-3 stalemate with Wazalendo Hockey Club.

It was heartbreaking for United States International University of Africa (USIU-A) Mashujaa who came close to winning their maiden title but fell short after a dull show in the homestretch.  

Despite having a match at hand, their hopes of pushing the title battle to the wire crashed yesterday when they played to a 3-3 draw against dethroned Jaguars. The draw meant that they had no chance of lifting the trophy despite having a match at hand. However, they are assured of a second-place finish and a ticket to the next edition of the Africa Cup for Club Championships (ACCC).

They started the season well and even enjoyed several weeks at the top of the table, nonetheless they slowed down allowing the more experienced ButalI side to run away with the gong.

Jaguars settled for the bronze medal with 31 points having played all their encounters. Premier League debutants Daikyo Heroes who had at some point contemplated withdrawing from the league recovered to stage a brilliant fight that saw them finish fifth in the 10-team league. Fresh from dethroning Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to be crowned African Queens in Zimbabwe, Lakers maintained the momentum to bag their first ever Women’s Premier League trophy. Saturday’s 2-1 win against the then defending champions Blazers Hockey Club sealed the gong for the Kisumu-based side.

With the victory they created a four-point gap between them and the former African champions who had not lost a game until then.

This saw them relinquish their crown for they could only manage three points from their last league duel against bitter rivals Strathmore University Scorpions. Lakers still have one match at hand after their Sunday’s encounter with Mombasa Sports Club (MSC) was postponed. MSC were involved in an accident on their way to Nairobi and couldn’t honour their weekend fixtures.