Tom Archbold, Sarah Shimmons, Head of Marketing at Linwoods and Isabella Monaghan.

Linwoods, one of Northern Ireland’s leading health food brands, has signed a deal to sponsor Ulster Hockey’s youth programmes until 2019.

The new partnership between Ulster Hockey and the family owned business in Armagh reinforces Linwoods’ commitment to supporting youth sport in the province; a common goal for both organisations, and together they will help increase the quality and quantity of hockey throughout Ulster.

Ulster Hockey will schedule a series of mini tournaments called ‘blitzes’ for U11s and U13s which will take place twelve times throughout the sporting calendar and operate on a huge scale. During the sponsorship period more than 24 youth blitzes will be delivered and 10,000 children aged between 9 and 13 are expected to take part.

Sarah Shimmons, Head of Marketing at Linwoods, commented: “Linwoods has a strong history in promoting real health and we are as passionate today about promoting healthy lifestyles as we were when the company started 50 years ago. We see the importance in investing in our young people in sport and encouraging active lifestyles, so it is a pleasure for us to be partnering with Ulster Hockey to help deliver these exciting tournaments.”

The relationship will also see Linwoods supporting the U11 and U13 Finals Days whereby clubs from across Ulster compete to be Ulster Champion for 2017/18.

Jill Poots, Executive Manager of Ulster Hockey, said: “We are delighted to announce our partnership with Linwoods who are such an established, local and global brand. This partnership will help Ulster Hockey to provide fun, enjoyable, and quality opportunities for boys and girls to participate in hockey at venues across Ulster, and will also help us to raise the profile of our sport.

We are really looking forward to working closely with Linwoods over the next two years.”

The second phase of youth hockey blitzes take place on the 22nd of October at various locations across Ulster. For more information on these please visit http://www.ulsterhockey.com/Youth-6560.html