Tenacious Linwood achieves a draw

Press, 18 June 1979, Page 19

Tenacious Linwood achieves a draw

Hockey jH ’

High School Old Bo> s lost a valuable chance to keep within a point ot University at the end of the first round of the senior; mens hockey championship, when it could only draw with Linwood United on Saturday. Linwood deserved its point from the match It defended tenaciously against the Old Boys attack which lacked the ability, to penetrate effectively inside I the 25m area. Selwyn-Hillmorton escaped 1 with a win in the last minute against Sydenham-Cashmere. Both teams, and Old Boys and Linwood, were hampered by the aticky and bumpy grounds at Hagley Park. It made skilful or constructive hockey virtually impossible. At Burwood Park, Woolston and Pegasus had better conditions and Woolston surprised with its first win of the season, lifting itself off the bottom of ihe points table. Pegasus now has the doubtful distinction of being on the bottom. Results and scorers were:— High School Old Boys 1 (M. Tillman), Linwood United I (T. Waghorn). Selwyn-Hillmorton 1 »A. Jury), Sydenham-Cashmere 0 Woolston W.M.C. 2 <P. Davies, G. Chalklini. Pegasus 0. The points table is:—

LATE GOAL Selwyn-Hillmorton and Sydenham-Cashmere fought a dour battle. mainl\ to overcome the conditions and. secondly, the opposition. The first-half! passed with no score and few 1 chances being created. After the interval Selwyn adapted better to the conditions <

and tried to achieve its aim bj Jong through passes with the Lett flank pair of Mark Burtt and David Clements running on to the ball. The ploy was well worth while because the ground made trapping hazardous for the Sydenham backs and several times they were beaten by the bounce to find a Selwyn forward pouncing on the ball behind them. But in spite of its many attacks it was not until a minute from full-time that Selwyn scored. It was awarded one of the few penalty-corners in the game, and from the shot. Tony Jury was on at the left-hand goal-post to deflect the ball past the defence. It was a disappointment for Sydenham which played capably, often putting pressure on Selwyn But its greatest fault was an inability to finish attacks on the circle. Mark Burtt and George Carnoutsos yoth ran hard and with remarkable control on the difficult ground. In the Selwyn defence Alistair McGregor was prominent with excellent cover defence. and probably the highest percentage of traps of any individual in the game. Murrav Peacock drove his forwards on to attack, trying to instil some urgency into them, but it was to no avail. COSTLY MISTAKE Linwood threw away a good chance to reach third place on the points table when one of the few mistakes it made on defence let Mike Tillman through to score the equalising goal. Linwood took the lead seven minutes from half-time when Terry Waghorn got to a loose ball on the goal-line and tapped it through the Old Boys defence, which had failed to clear from a corner. Five minutes later Geoff Deakins and Tillman combined in! the only good move of the match. Deakins’s pass to Tillman at the top of the circle was accepted and after putting the

) goalie out of position. Tillman was left with an open goal. Old Boys had slightly the better of the game in the second half. It had a number of penaltyi corners and from one late in the game Greg Barrett, the Linwood right-back, had to make a goal-line save. But generally the hits out to Gibson were too slow and he had the Linwood defence on top of him before he could get a clean shot. Linwood’s best attacking forward was Darryl Small but he often ran too far with the ball and put the other forwards out of position. On the occasions he did not. the forwards could not control his passes. At centre-half Bhikhu Bhana was controlled and consistent in all facets of his play. FIRST WIN Woolston. easily the most improved team in the senior competition this season, scored its first win at the expense of Pegasus. In the first-half. Woolston dominated play with the rightflank functioning smoothly. Peter Davies and Roger Campbell combined well and with support from the other forwards came close to scoring several times. But the Pegasus defence held, mainly because of some fine goal-keeping by Paul Wayman. Woolston could not recapture | its first-half form after the inter- ! val and the game became a series of errors, but with 10 minutes remaining Woolston suddenly began to string a few passes together again, and from one of these movements Geoff Chalklin scored. A few minutes later Peter Davies scored again, sealing the result for Pegasus. ’ Ivan Thomson, playing his last | game for Pegasus — he is going J overseas — and Peter Cox, who has just returned to the team after a spell overseas, were the only Pegasus players to show’ any 'drive or control on attack.

P W D L F A Pts Univ. 8 6 1 1 24 13 H.S.O.B 8 3 1 16 7 ]1 Harewood 8 3 3 2 14 16 9 Linwood 8 3 2 3 10 9 8 Selwvn 7 3 1 3 8 Redcliffs 8 2 2 9 13 6 Sydenham 3 1 3 4 7 14 Woolston 7 1 3 3 6 13 Pegasus 8 1 2 1 i 4