THE Ventures under-14 kaji hockey team suffered a setback to its title defence when they lost their opening game 4-2 to Stingers during the Marist 11-a-side Eastgate Memorial Hockey tournament at the National Hockey Centre yesterday.
The defending Apted Trophy champions could not contain the much determined Stingers side. Ventures struggled to settle in the game.
The Connect Velocity-sponsored tournament has attracted clubs from Ba, Lautoka, Nadi and Suva.
Tournament official Colin Bentley said the performances of the kaji teams had set the platform for the men's and women's games.
"This is a good start to the tournament, Ventures are the champions and for them to lose their first game shows what this competition is like.
"So we are hoping for more exciting results in the next games," he said.
In the other kaji match, Mobilites beat Marist 3-2.
Marist, Ventures and Stingers are the top teams in the kaji competition.
Bentley said the next two days would be exciting to watch.
"Stingers, Ventures and Marist are the top teams in Suva but Mobilites showed how dominant and strong they were after beating Marist.
"Right now the tournament is still open and we are looking forward to the next round of games tomorrow (today)," he added.
The competition continues at 8am today.