Close matches for women

Press, 1 May 1978, Page 20

Close matches for women

The senior women’s hockey competition was continued on Saturday on fields married by rather long grass. Teams playing in the later matches also had to contend with blustery conditions. Burnside and Harewood maintained their top of the ladder positions, Burnside by winning a close encounter with Cranmer, and Harewood by a onegoal win against University. Rawhiti and Carlton both had good wins.

Carlton attacked from the outset through the centre and used the through pass to advantage. As tlie game progressed the play was spread more widely, putting a greater strain on Linwood’s defence. In the first half. Linwood played with determination and the" defence backed one another well and prevented Carlton breaking through on many occasions. Marion Fullwood was a valuable asset in Linwood’s goal. Stopping and clearing well. Pat Barwick was dominating the centre and Linwood were forced

to use the wings who were inclined to overhit and give away possession.

Carlton clicked in the second half and wore their less experienced opponents down with sound team work. Shirley Haig, with strong running and good footwork, had a field day, scoring three goals. Carlton's other goals were scored by Isobcl Knight, Jill Cummings and Jean Catherwood. Burnside 3, Cranmer 2 This match was played at a fast pace by two fairly evenly matched teams. Except for occasional lapses of too much individualism. Burnsides forwards, combined better than their opponents. Cranmer’s Dawn Wilson and Nick! Sheriff were strong on breakaways but sound defensive play by Burnside prevented the shot at goal. With Janet Galloway feeding her forwards well, Burnside held territorial advantage early in the second half. With the score at 2-all Cranmer attacked strongly only to see Burnside retaliate and return to the other end and gain a penalty stroke. This was taken and won by Judith Phillips. With play rahging up and down no further score was added. Phillips scored twice for Burnside and Helen Denny once. Cranmer’s scorers were Wilson and Wendy Stewart. Woolston/Rawhiti 5, Digbys 0 Woolston displayed good team

work in its match with Digbys. The liaises fed the forwards with intelligent passes and supported the backs with good cover defence. The forward line combined well and made full use of the short controlled through passes from Donna Paviell, the centre-half. Judy Verdellen was always dangerous in the circle with" powerful shooting.* Digby's marking in the centre of the field was a stumbling block for Woolston in the first half but a lack of cover was a fault in deep defence. Individual breaks by Digbys were thwarted by Woolston s sound defence. Verdellen scored three goals and Lois McCartney two. Harewood 1, University 0 In jin uninteresting game which lacked team work from both sides. Harewood came out the winner by one goal to nil. Harewood, with several young players in the side, showed more control than they did in their last match, and with a few’ more games will combine better. Alison Sutherland, playing her first match of the season used her speed to advantage but lacked support. University’s passing was often misdirected to Harewood s advantage. Elizabeth Brooker played her usual sound game at centre-half but with the University forwards showing no alertness, her passes were often wasted. Harewood’s Sutherland scored the only goal of the match.

Points table. — D L F A Pts P w Burnside 0 0 6 3 2 Harewood 2 0 0 3 1 2 Carlton 1 1 o in 4 li Wool-Raw. 2 1 1 0 9 4 U Cranmer 2 1 0 1 4 3 1 University 0 0 2 1 4 0 Digbys 2 0 0 2 1 7 0 Lin.-United 2 0 0 2 U 8 0 Carlton 6 Linwood/United 0