CANTERBURY endured a baptism of fire in their first venture into competitive international hockey.

They took their place in the EuroHockey Indoor Champions Cup in Perth, Scotland, over the weekend but found the going a bit too tough.

Canterbury lined-up alongside reigning champions KS Pocztowiec Poznan of Poland, star-studded German side Crefelder HTC and Danish champions Orient Lyngby in their tough group.

They took on the Poles in the tournament opener on Friday and despite a strong display - which saw them go into the break only 3-2 down, they ended up losing by 7-4.

Their second game proved even tougher and they slumped to 7-1 down at half-time against Crefelder. The second half got even worse as the Germans - featuring several World Cup winners - ran in 11 more goals to finish 18-1 winners.

Things did improve for the city club the following day as they went into the break 4-2 down against Lyngby but they eventually went down 9-5 to finish bottom of their group.

In the first play-off game they played Swiss side Luzerner, who had finished third in their pool with one win, but despite going into the break level at 1-1, they couldn’t withstand a second-half onslaught and crumbled to a 9-1 defeat.

In the final game - playing to avoid finishing in eighth and last place overall, they went 4-0 down against Austrians Wiener AC inside the first half and eventually went down 8-2.

Crefelder were crowned champions are a dramatic 3-2 extra-time win against Pocztowiec.