Canterbury unable to hold Challenge Shield

Press, 5 September 1983, Page 18

Canterbury unable to hold Challenge Shield

From

KEVIN TUTTY

in Palmerston North

When George Carnoutsos fired a penalty-stroke over the goal mid-way through the secondhalf of the Challenge Shield final at the Adidas national men’s hockey tournament on Saturday in Palmerston North, with it disappeared Canterbury’s chance of retaining the shield.

Auckland won the final, 42, but had Canterbury scored from the penalty stroke it would have taken a 3-2 lead, and perhaps maintained the dominance it was starting to exert on the game. But the missed opportunity which Canterbury had fought gallantly to obtain, took some of the sting from the Canterbury team. Its effectiveness was further reduced three minutes later when Carnoutsos was given a temporary suspension for clipping Jeff Archibald’s fingers when he objected to a crude tackle by the Auckland player. Carnoutsos was badly missed at centre-forward where his sharp dribbling and combination with the left and right flanks had been extremely valuable. By the time he returned to the field, Auckland had taken a 3-2 lead, and in the final five minutes Canterbury could not build the momentum back into its attack that it had earlier.

A misunderstanding between the coach, Jim Bowden, on the sideline, and the captain, Robin Wilson, when the stroke was awarded was also costly for Canterbury. Carnoutsos, who forced the penalty-stroke was injured when he was upended in the circle, and Mr Bowden asked from the sideline if he was all right. Wilson mistook the comment as an instruction for Carnoutsos to take the stroke, but in fact he wanted Chris Leslie, who had been subbed on a couple of minutes earlier, to take the stroke.

Leslie had been taking the strokes during the week, and although he had hit the cross-bar with one the day before, his powerful push was needed in the situation.

The see-saw final was full of interest throughout and some superb skills were shown by the forwards of both teams. Canterbury, with three teenagers in its team, performed with plenty of guts against its more experienced opponent, and had the bulk of the 600 onlookers on its side.

Canterbury’s first goal ‘which gave it. a 1-0 lead, was brilliantly conceived and finished. It started near the half-way line and ended about eight passes later, without an Auckland player touching the ball, when Balvant Bhana scored.

The movement was held up momentarily just outside the Auckland circle,

then Carnoutsos moved past two defenders, passed a metre to his right to John Radovonich, who moved another couple of metres into the circle, and slipped another short pass behind the last line of defence for Bhana.

Canterbury had problems on defence attempting to contain the classy stickwork of Ramesh Patel and Arthur Parkin, both New Zealand representatives. That was reflected in the big penaltycomer count for Auckland. It had nine comers in the

first half and 10 in the second, but it only scored from one — the last — a minute from full time.

Canterbury had to withstand some heavy Auckland pressure in the final eight minutes of the first half. Auckland forced six penalty corners in the period, but all proved fruitless. There were only 30 seconds left in the second half, however, when Auckland equalised. A through pass meant for Ramesh Patel was too hard and Dave Stuthridge, coming out of the Canterbury goal, chose to clear the ball rather than risk allowing it to run over the backline. His clearing kick unfortunately went directly to Parkin at the top of the circle, who trapped the ball and fired a quick shot past the defence. Canterbury was slow to start the second half and Auckland had an early period of dominance. After eight minutes Ramesh Patel scored from a rebound. Jeff Archibald had made the initial shot after finding himself unmarked at the top of the circle after a long corner.

Patel was given a temporary suspension three minutes after for cuffing the young Canterbury rightwing, Radovohich, around the ear. Patel stood on the Canterbury player’s foot at a hit in, but the Canterbury youngster was not going to be intimidated. He stood on Patel’s foot and forced the reaction from the Auckland player.

Canterbury equalised after 14 minutes of the half. Carnoutsos picked up a pen-alty-corner rebound near the top of the circle, moved into a big gap to his right and fired a shot across lan Woodley in the Auckland goal. Auckland’s third goal came from a penalty-stroke after 27 minutes. A penaltycorner shot was stopped by a Canterbury foot on the goal-line and Parkin scored with a push low to Dave Stuthridge’s left. That was the death knell for Canterbury and the final blow came a minute from full time when Dave Peterson scored from a penalty corner.

Canterbury’s forward line looked more dangerous than Auckland’s when it was able to move forward. All five forwards dribbled skilfully, in particular Bhana who

made some scintillating dribbles and played one of the best games of his career. Canterbury lacked a little punch in mid-field, though. It tried to keep a tight rein on Patel and Parkin, and the Auckland centre-half Archibald, but they were often left with space to receive passes and initiate attacks. David Penfold, at centrehalf for Canterbury, learned some harsh lessons, but did a commendable job for a 19-year-old in his first Chal-

lenge Shield final.. Otago was relegated from the Challenge Shield section when it lost, 0-1, to Northland, and Hutt Valley earned promotion to the Challenge Shield section. It lost the Rothmans Cup final to Auckland B, but the Auckland side is not allowed in the Challenge Shield section. North Otago hockey received a boost when its team won the India Plate section and will play in the Newmans Trophy section next year.