University top hockey team

Press, 29 May 1978, Page 20

University top hockey team

University hu worked its w»y to the top of the senior men’s hockey table with a convincing, 44), win against Harewood on ’ Saturday. It has joined High 1 School Old Boys at the head of ; the ladder after Old Boys could : take only one point from its ! match with Pegasus. Selwyn-HUlmorton had a bve 1 on Saturday, but it retains third 1 place, a point behind the lead- ' i ers, while RedelUfs, with a good [win against Woolston W.M.C., is slowly working its way up the points table after a mediocre i start to the season. i , In the fourth game, Sydenham- 1 Cashmere and Linwood United ! (fought desperately to gain an 1 outright result, but the match ! was drawn. Grounds on Saturday were > bumpy, both at Porritt Park, where three games were played, 1 and Ham. Trapping was diffi. . cult, and this led to scrappy t Play, but grounds in that condi- c tion are preferable to wet, s muddy surfaces which do no- t thing to allow the games to s flow. The two draws again illustrated the evenness of the com- I petition and surprises are likely I to continue throughout the sea- I son. v r Results and scorers were:— s University 4 (9. C. Meister J 3. B. Meister), Harewood 0. * High School Old Boys 1 (J. I Gibson), Pegasus 1 (I. Thom- s son). j Reddlffs 3 (R. Munt 2, A. $ Ineson), Woolston WMC. 0. 1 Linwood United 1 (9. WIL t Sydenham-Cashmere 1 v (B. Hall). t

At the interval Harewood was still very much in the, game against University. It was down a goal, but had done most of the attacking in the first half and had more penalty corners than University. Unfortunately for Harewood its hand stop and hit combination did not function smoothly. Chris Maister, on the other hand, was striking the ball superbly for University. His brother, Barry, looked to be in danger of losing his left hand, so quick was Chris Maister to the ball after the stop. He scored three goals, all with fierce, clean hits. The game was played at a fast pace, but it lost some of its lustre through continued stick hacking from both sides, a fault which should have been corrected by the umpires. There were several minor skirmishes resulting from these breaches. Alan Chesney, the Harewood centre half, clashed several times with his Canterbury teammates, John Christensen and Chris Maister. Selwyn Maister, the University centre half, also had to bear excessively close marking. University played a much tighter defence than normal, with its wings withdrawn and ; the inside forwards doing most

of the attacking, and Harewood had no counter to the tactic. Balvant Bhana and Bruce McLean made some splendid runs on the left flank for Harewood, but lacked close support. At inside right. Roydon Agent too often tried to take on the University defence single handed. That tactic failed against players of the calibre of Paul Ackerley. and Ewan Holstein. In the last 15 minutes, the University forwards dominated and scored two goals, one by Barry Maister, after receiving a pass at the top of the circle, and the other a Chris Maister penalty corner. He had earlier scored the second goal from a corner 10 minutes into the second half. EVEN PLAY The draw between Old Boys and Pegasus was a fair Indication of the game. Pegasus was a little fortunate to escape with a point however. Paul Wayman, the Pegasus goal-keeper, made a splendid save of a penalty-stroke just on half-time. Jeff Gibson pushed the ball hard and low to Wayman’s right but with quick reflexes he thrust out a hand and stopped the ball inches from the ground. Pegasus scored its goal four minutes into the second-half, also from a penalty-stroke. Ivan Thomson’s push beat a dispalring dive by Graeme Sligo. Pegasus dominated the first 15 minutes of the second-half, but then Old Boys applied pressure by attacking down its right and Pegasus seemed powerless to break out of the area. It was inevitable that Old Boys should score and Gibson made amends for his earlier miss with a hard shot from the top of the circle. Pegasus badly neglected its

right flank of Hugh Griffin and Dave Kirwan in this period, a pair who tested the Old Boys defence many times in the first half. Rob Ebert and Geoff Deekins led the Old Boys attack with good probes up the right flank. Gibson and Roger Wesney gave them a good supply of passes and on deep defence Rob Smith and Maurice Kidd worked extremely hard. Rob Wilson and Darryl Neate both had good games in the Pegasus defence, but BUI Griffin did not give his forwards his usual close support on attack. REDCLIFFS DOMINATE Redcllffs had too much control for Woolston but it was not until mid-way through the second half that it put the game In safe keeping. Tony Ineson put Redcllffs ahead with a penalty-corner in the early minutes, and twice tn the first half went close again, but two exceUent stops on the goal-line by Gary Jones kept Woolston’s hopes alive. Occasionally Woolston burst on to attack but the forward lacked the close control and support to completely break the Redcllffs defence, Ineson was a dominant figure in field and Neil Coster snowed Improved form at fullRichard Munt, the Redcllffs In-side-left. whose play has shown Increased maturity thia year, scored two excellent goals to put his side beyond the reach of a possible equalising goal by Woolston. His second goal was an excellent effort. He ran around the Woolston goal-keeper, Gary Copsey, and pushed the ball into the The Redcllffs forward line Is

becoming much more potent on stuck as the season progresses and if it continues the consistency It has shown in the last few weeks, should take the side much nearer the top of the table. LINWOOD DEFENCE SOUND Sydenham did everything but Uke the lead in the second-half against Linwood United. It mounted attack after atUck but could not penetrate the tight defensive wall erected by Linwood. Linwood scored first early tn the match when Graeme Williams was quickly onto a rebound from a penalty-corner. For the remainder of the half the game was even and neither side had a good scoring opportunity. After a brisk talk from the coach, Alan Kirwan, Sydenham entered the second-half with more vigour and it camped for a considerable period in the Linwood half. Eventually Bevan Hall scored with a strong shot. Earlier Murray Peacock put the ball in the net, but it was disallowed because of dangerous play. Linwood fought its way back into the game in the middle stages of the half, and Williams was again close to scoring. In the last five minutes Sydenham again applied heavy pressure but Linwood’s defence,' with Bhiku Bhana and John Whitford outstanding, and Greg Barrett not far behind them, held well. In the Linwood forward line Darryl Smail dribbled well but lacked support The Sydenham defence, in particular Peacock, Hall and Ross Ambler, picked up a host of stray Linwood passes, but unfortunately the forwards were over anxious to use them, leading to many errors on ettack.

Th* points Ubl* is:— A Pts P W D L F University 3 4 0 1 11 4 a H.S.O.B. 6 3 2 1 8 6 8 Seiwyn 5 3 1 1 11 6 7 Redcliffs 5 3 0 2 12 6 6 Harewood 6 2 1 3 5 10 5 Pegasus Sydenham 5 1 2 2 4 5 4 5 1 2 2 5 7 4 Linwood 5 0 3 2 5 10 3 Woolston 6 1 1 4 S 12 3 LATH GOALS