Easy win keeps University in front

Press, 14 July 1980, Page 18

Easy win keeps University in front

University maintained its fourpoint lead at the head of the senior men’s hockey championship with a comfortable 4-0 win against Linwood United on Saturday. Selwyn-Hillmorton, which was beaten the previous week by Woolston, struggled for 65 minutes against Harewood on Saturday before scoring the one goal it needed to stay in relative touch with University. All teams on Saturday seemed more interested in the final whistle which would enable them to put some feeling back into their limbs after 70 minutes in the biting southerly wind. Consequently none of the games were very good spectacles. High School Old Boys lacked concentration against Woolston, and paid the price with a scoreless draw. In the fourth game Pegasus snatched a point with a draw against Sydenham-Cash-mere.

Results and scorers were:— Selwyn-Hillmorton I (C. Burtt), Harewood 0. University 4 (C. G. Maister, B. J. Jlaister, J. H. Chritensen, R. Workman). Linwood United 0.

Woolston 0. High School Old Boys 0.

LATE GOAL Both Selwyn and Harewood were below their best form. The mistakes by both sides were more frequent than usual, and consequently the game had few interesting points. Both forward lines were disjointed on attack, although Harewood occasionally found the urge to pass the ball about. it was at these times that it looked dangerous against a very tentative Selwyn defence. lan Hill made several bustling runs through the centre, but Balvant Bh ana’s attacking ability was nullified by close marking. Dick Pettit, the Harewood I

centre-half, was a dominant figure in mid-field, closely supporting his forwards and then being back on deep defence to help clear the Harewood circle. Exhortations from the sideline bv the Selwyn coach, Jim Bowden. for George Carnoutsos to mark Pettit went largely unheeded. , „ ... Carnoutsos and Mark. Burtt did not form their usual alliance on attack in mid-field, but in the last quarter the Selwyn. attack, concentrated on eliminating errors and was much more effective. It forced several -penaltycorners and in the twenty-ninth minute of the half Craig Burtt finally beat the Harewood defence. . „ .... A few minutes earlier Pettit came close to giving Harewood the lead. A shot from 10m in front of the goal flew high over the cross-bar. . „ The Selwyn centre-halt, Robin Wilson marshalled the defence well when it was under pressure. His coolness helped his side out of several tricky positions.

COMFORTABLE WIN University, even without its two New Zealand junior representatives, Greg Pierce and Warwick Shillito, still had too much control and experience for Linwood United.

The first quarter was even as University, with a rearranged forward line, took some time to settle. But slowly the passing improved and the number of attacks increased.

Barry Maister, playing in the unusual role of inside-right, scored the first goal after 26 minutes. It came after a good run down the left wing by Pirn Borren, a younger brother of the two former New Zealand players, Jan and Thur. Linwood had a chance three minutes later to stay in the game. From the third of a series of penalty-corners John Wood, the University left-back, stopped the ball with his foot. Parsot Ehana’s penalty-stroke flew outside the goal. Two minutes before half-time John Christensen scored from a corner, and in the second half

Chris Maister and Robert Workman, the left-half, added goals. John Smith, playing at righthalf for University, had a successful game. He had earlier plaved for the senior reserve side and handled his duties with maturity in the senior side. He wil bo more than an adequate replacement for Pierce in the next couple of weeks. Selwyn Maister at centre-half plaved only as hard as he needed to,' which was at about threequarter effort. He was well supported by the rest of the defence and the inside-forwards. Linwood missed the steadying influence of Bhikhu Bhana at centre-half. He will move to Australia soon. John Whitford was an eager, effective, but unorthodox back, and Greg Barrett. his partner, carried a heavy Workload with few errors. COSTLY MISTAKE

An uncharacteristic mistake by Martv Fitzsimmons in the Sydenham'goal cost his team a point In the final seconds against Pegasus. The ball was struck from well

outside the circle and rather than let it cross the back-lme Fitzsimmons attempted to clear. However he only succeeded in giving the ball to Warren Richards, who equalised. It was ironic because, more than anv Sydenham player, litzsimmons had kept the Pegasus attack at bay during the second half bv repelling several very strong ’shots. ~ . , The first half was goal-less, but early in the second Paul Gardiner scored for Sydenham with a neat flick. Pegasus. led by Peter Cox who played an astute game at centre-half, and its coach. Bob Best, began to apply pressure to the Sydenham defence with precise and accurate passing. Sydenham had several narrow escapes during the half, and when Richards finally scored it was well deserved, but a blow to Sydenham which had defended so stoutly. MISSED CHANCES Old Boys did everything but j score against Woolston. They; completely dominated play m

the first half and In the last-* quarter, but could not make use-.' of a wealth of penalty-comers and goal opportunities set up f from field play. ? Woolston was helped greatly , by some superb goal-keeping by , Gary Copsey. Several times he--stopped a succession of quick-' shots and then cleared the-, circle. • Geoff Deaktns and Greg Arm--strong worked hard in the OldBoys forward line, for no re--ward. Each had a relatively easyscoring chance but could notcomplete it. Kerry Thomas alsomissed ah opportunity. Woolston showed more urgency from the start of the second half, and for * period took tho play to Old Boys. Don McKenzie at inside-left was prominent with hard work both on attack and defence. Steve Barrow, at centre-half, was constructive with-his passing and solid with his tackling. Chris Tye and Simon Tillev were the best of the Old Boys plavers. Their defence was coo] and virtually error-free.

Sydenham-Cashmere 1 (P. Gardiner), Pegasus 1 (W . Richards). The points table is: W D L F A Pts University 9 1 1 36 8 19 Selvvyn 6 3 2 19 10 15 Redcliffs 4 4 2 9 8 12 Sydenham 4 4 □ 11 11 12 Old Boys 4 3 4 17 13 11 Harewood 4 2 4 12 13 10 Woolston 3 3 3 7 12 9 Pegasus 2 3 5 7 25 7 Linwood 0 1 10 5 23 1