Fighting spirit evident in hockey

Press, 17 April 1979, Page 3

Fighting spirit evident in hockey

' Two close games, one of which ended with three players cooling their tempers behind their goals, highlighted the four games in the Canterbury senior hockey championship at Porritt Park yesterday.

Harewood scored a winning goal late in its match against Redcliffs after the teams were locked at 1-all for most of the second-half, and Sydenham-Cashmere scored the equaliser against Pegasus with two minutes remaining.

In a hectic final five minutes with Sydenham throwing all its effort into attack, tempers frayed. David Brown, the Pegasus centreforward was sent behind his net, and then a minute later Doug Williamson, the Sydenham centre-forward, and Robert Wilson, the Pegasus right-back, clashed in a flurry of sticks and fists. AU three" spent the remaining minutes under temporary suspension.

In the other games University had a comfortable win against a tenacious Woolston side, and High School Old Boys scored three goals in the space of 10 minutes in the first quarter, which proved too much fo| Selwyn-Hillmorton, even

though it dominated play in the second-half. Results and scorers were: University 4 (C. G. Maister 2, W. Shillito, B. Carter), Woolston W.M.C. 0. Harewood 2 (B. McLean), Redcliffs 1 (B. Beaumont). High School Old Boys 3 (P. Ritani 2, M. Tillman), Selwyn-Hillmorton 0. Pegasus I (I. Thomson), Sydenham-Cashmere 1 (R. Ambler). Frantic start By the time Selwyn-Hillmorton had picked up the pieces of its play against Old Boys it was down three goals and lucky it was not four. From that position it had a difficult job to fight back to even draw. As things transpired it could not make use of any of the opportunities it had in the second-half. Old Boys started boldly. Its forwards attacked with purpose, particularly the right flank of Prithavi Rao, Jeff Deakins and Mike Tillman at centre forward. Their combined efforts after five minutes resulted in a penalty corner that Paul Ritani, a valuable acquisition from South Canterbury, fired into the corner of the net. Five minutes later he scored again arid three minutes later Tillman beat the Selwyn cover to a loose ball a couple of metres in front of the goal. Two minutes later Old Boys (burst onto the attack and received a penalty stroke. Chris Tye's nush was well saved By Peter Bodekar From that point Selwyn fought its wa-v into the game. It received several penalty corner before I half-time but none were con-

verted. In the second half Selwyn continued its dominance arid many strong attacks resulted in penalty corners. Several were well struck, but Graeme Sligo in the Old Boys goal played superbly. deflecting several around the goal. He also blocked a number of other attacks. Old Boys was well served by its experienced defence, especially the full-backs. Tye and Rob Smith. Tony Jury, after being initially at sea with the rest of the defence setlecl down and placed intelligently at centre half. His accurate passing made the task of the forwards easier. determined defence Man for man, Woolston lacked the skill of its opponent but it lacked nothing in determination. It was inevitable that University would increase the pressure in the second half, but to restrict the champion team to two goals in each half was a commendable effort. Much of the praise for keeping the score down went to the Woolston goal keeper, Gary Copsey. He made some tremendous saves from all angles, including a penalty stroke by Selwyn Maister that was flying into the corner at ground level to Gopsey’s left. University took an early lead when Chris Maister scored from a penalty corner, but it was not until a minute before half-time that he again scored. Woolston twice had scoring chances mid.way through the half. One shot was cleared off the line by a University defender.

Warwick Shillito scored University’s first second half goal. He was well positioned in front of the goal for a pass. The second resulted from a push along the back-line bv the left wing Brian Carter. It struck the far goalpost and bounced in.

Chris Maister was an outstand- < ing forward for University. He : roamed out of his inside left 1 position but into a space i gave him the opportunity to i make some ground snatching i dribbles. Tom Brennan appeared to be everywhere on defence for Wool- , ston, marshalling, tackling and ) clearing, and Malcolm Wood at left half did a difficult job well : against some effective dribbling ) by Shillito and Neil Edmundson, the University right flank. Redcliffs slip Redcliffs has not had a happy start to the season. If lost its first game, won its second with a better display, but slipped back to bad habits yesterday and paid the penalty against Harewood. Harewood dominated the first half, its forwards putting together more passes than Redcilffs and looking more likely to score. It eventually did score through Bruce McLean, wbo has taken over the leadership of the attack in the absence af Balvant Bhana. His driving play was an example which the other forwards followed. Unfortunately in the second half both sides placed too much

emphasis on speed and the game deteriorated. In one of its infrequent attacks Redcliffs scored when Brendan Beaumont scooped up a loose ball. The scores were locked for a while, but six minutes from full time McLean scored again. Redcliffs attacked strongly for the remainder of the game and Harewood just as determined, hit the ball as far from its circle as possible. The last few minutes were punctuated by appeals from the Redcliffs players to have time stopped while the ball was retrieved. Dick Pettit and lan Steel were resolute defenders for Harewood. and for Bedcliffs. Peter

Christensen and Melt Coster did I admirable work. Twice in the last tew minutes Murray Spinks came close to scoring for Red- I cliffs but was foiled by the solid defence. Sydenham recover Uncharacteristically. Sydenham passed up some good scoring I chances in the first half and almost paid the penalty when Pegasus- scored against the run of play mid-way through the second half, Sydenham had the greater ! amount of possession and used it well, mounting attacks down both the right and left flanks. Steve Ambler was the pivot of the attack at inside right and did his job well. He found space to receive passes, dribbled aggressively, and gave passes that unfortunately were not always trapped. Pegasus attacked Infrequently, maiiiiv because there was a lack of understanding between the forwards, and failure to find gaps into which the halves could pass -without the ball being inter- . cepted. Bob Best was an exception. He hunted and harrassed eon- . tinuously and his hard work was

> evident in the attack that led - to a penalty corner from which : Ivan Thomson gave Pegasus the . lead. As Pegasus fought desperately l to hold its lead and Sydenham . was equally as determined to • equallise. it seemed inevitable : there would be clashes. There I had been niggling play at vari- , ous stages through the game and > it erupted when the pressure . was on In the last few min- ■ utes. i It probably coat Pegasus the i game. It had two players temporarily suspended and it was ! during this thne that Sydenham ■ scored the equallising goal from ■ a penalty corner by Ross Ambler