Yes, he was a great player. I had the honour of playing against him (and Silu, Hilary and Leo) when the Entebbe [Goan] Institute was in Nairobi for a sports visit with the RI in the early 70s. I was vice-captain of the EI team, just out of university. May God bless him for the joy he gave so many of us. John
-----Original Message----- From: JOSEPH LOBO [mailto:jl...@rogers.com] Sent: March 11, 2017 4:05 AM To: yahoogroups <goans_tanzan...@yahoogroups.com>; fernd...@rogers.com Cc: goa...@goanet.org; wpemarti...@yahoo.ca; John Nazareth <jhr_nazar...@hotmail.com> Subject: re: the passing away of Kenya hockey stalwart Alu Mendonca. At one time , in the 1960`s, Kenya`s hockey team was a power-house on the world`s sporting stage. It combined the talents of young men who initially learned their craft on the playing fields of India and Pakistan.........and schools like St.. Stanislaus, Bombay.......St. Joseph`s, Bangalore and St.Pauls Belgaum.were incubators of young talent.....also were home grown goan boys like Hilary & Leo Fernandes, Edgar and Egbert of Nairobi, Silu Fernandes also of Nairobi and Sikh Union players Surjeet Singh Jr., Avtar Singh.& Hardial Singh who eventuallymoved from player to Manager of the national side. Also included were young men from the Sir Ali Muslim Sports club of Nairobi I do remember while I was in college at St. Xaviers, Bombay in 1963 watching a touring Kenya national side play a series of exhibition matches against various combination of Indian national sides in preparation for the Olympics in 1964. At the BPHA field which was the ultimate venue in western India........the Kenya side surprised the Bombay hockey audience when they outplayed the Indian side presented to them. The popular stands were filled with a lot of goan fans from the near-by Dhobi Talao who were expecting a side of African (black ) players. There were comments like......." but these are Sikhs and Goans "...... However the fine standard of play , dribbling and passing was a delight to watch................ including Alu Mendonca`s trade mark angling and powerful on - the - run centering to the inside forwards !
