Canty B shakes off lethargy to win impressively

Press, 2 September 1980, Page 36

Canty B shakes off lethargy to win impressively

From

KEVIN TUTTY

in Auckland

Canterbury B shook off the lethargy of its first day’s performance and had an impressive, 8-0, win against Poverty Bay in the India Plate section of the Newman’s-Adidas national men’s hockey tournament at Auckland yesterday.

Playing in the national tournament for the first time, but iri the bottom of the three sections, Canterbury showed sufficient form to indicate it has a strong chance of winning the section and earning promotion to the Newman’s Trophy section next year. Auckland B, which was expected to be too strong for the other sides in the India Plate was surprisingly held to a 2-2 draw by Wellington B yesterday. Robert Clay scored a penalty-stroke for Wellington with 30 seconds remaining.

Admittedly Canterbury B was given all the space it needed by Poverty Bay to work the ball, but its urgency and passing were so vastly improved that it could be expected to be a finalist on Saturday. " The Canterbury A team had a bye in the Challenge Shield section yesterday, and there were no upset results to cheer them. ■ Manawatu looked for some time as if it could topple Wellington A, but it missed several penalty-corner opportunities and eventually Wellington nosed ahead with a Phil Benfield penalty-corner five minutes before the interval.

Canterbury B started slowly against Poverty Bay but quickly settled into a series of attacks with the forwards showing a much healthier combination than they did against Tauranga on Monday. By half-time the score was

3-0. lan Hill scored two goals and Greg Barrett one from a penalty-corner. In the sees ond-half the pressure increased as the Poverty Bay side’s fitness failed and five goals were scored in the final 25 minutes. ■ Barrett scored two more corners with accurate, firm shots. Ross, Thompson flicked in a rebound from the goalkeeper’s pads, Hill scored again, but the best goal was the last.

lan Steel, normally a back, was substituted on the leftwing with five minutes left. He immediately made a couple of dashes down the wing and into the circle before being robbed of the ballWith seconds left a cross from the right found him at the top left-hand edge of the circle. He trapped the ball, turned with the grace of an experienced left-wing, and fired a hard shot at knee height into the goal to the delight of the Canterbury A players watching. Hill was a skilful and penetrative right-wing for Can ten bury and Ross Thompson, at centre-forward, and lan Riach, at inside-left, combined a number of times in nippy passing movements, Richard Spiers, before he moved to right-back late in the game, gave some splendid passes to Hill from righthalf. Dick Pettit, at centrehalf, directed play astutely. For a good period of the first-half the Manawatu forwards had the Wellington defence on the back foot. Led

by Grant Simpson, Paul Wightman and Bruce Calkin, its attacks were fast and fluent and it was only the experienced full-back pair of Benfield and Wayne Buckingham who held the Wellington defence together. At one stage in the secondhalf three players were in the “sin-bin.” Alan Mclntyre (Wellington) was first to take his leave, followed closely by Graeme Hall and Simpson (both Manawatu). South Canterbury, after a poor first-half and down, 0-2, scored two goals in as many minutes to draw against Nelson in ■ a Challenge Shield game. After its fine performance against Canterbury on Monday, South Canterbury was strangely off form but after the interval its passing improved and a penalty-stroke by Chris Leslie, and a pen-alty-comer by Murray Brown, quickly levelled the scores.

Tim Trevena Brown and Ash Bradley scored for Nelson, which was a more forceful side in the first-half. After the interval it had some fine defence by Graeme Strickett and. lan Hargreaves to thank for the draw. Ashburton had a poor start to the tournament in the Newman’s Trophy section, losing, 1-5, to a superior Hutt Valley. Marlborough did well to hold Otago to a one-goal advantage, and West Coast had its second successive draw although it did enough to beat Counties.