Men’s hockey lead maintained

Press, 26 April 1984, Page 28

Men’s hockey lead maintained

Selwyn maintained its place at the head of the points table in the Noel Leeming senior men’s hockey championship yesterday, but one of its close rivals, High School Old Boys, lost its unbeaten record against University. Harewood, another close challenger, almost came unstuck. It was two goals down to Redcliffs but managed to fight back to win 3-2. The young Pegasus team continued its march up the ladder and now shares second place with Harewood, although the latter has a game in hand. Pegasus handled a fiery Burwood Park ground well to beat Rangiora 3-1.

Linwood won the battle of the two lowest placed teams when it beat Sydenham 1-0. The latter is now languishing

at the bottom of the points table without a point. Grounds were dry and fast for yesterday’s games and few teams were able to handle the conditions. Control took second place to haste in several teams. The points table is:

Riach, C. Leslie), REDCUFFS 2 (P. Christensen, R. Munt). A controversial penalty-stroke

five minutes from full-time gave Harewood its winning goal. Five minutes into the second-half prospects of a Harewood success looked remote when it was down by two goals. At that point Redcliffs made a tactical error. It attempted to rush the ball deep into Harewood territory at every opportunity, but all it succeeded in doing was passing possession to Harewood which immediately moved back into attack. Peter Christensen put Redcliffs ahead in the first-half, and three minutes into the second-half, Richard Munt scored from the top of the circle.

However, the abandonment of control cost Redcliffs dearly. It had the forwards with the capability of retaining possession ana working the ball deep into Harewood territory, but neglected that ploy.

Harewood attacked mainly through the centre but its flanks

were also used effectively to vary the attack. Harewood’s prospects looked even more bleak when one shot cannoned over the net and another was saved on the line early in the second-half. But after 15 minutes Glen Hayde scored when he burst into the circle and flipped a neat reverse stick shot past the goal-keeper. Five minutes later lan Riach scored when he deflected a long comer past a bewildered defence. Harewood continued to pressure the Redcliffs defence and five minutes from full-time it received a penalty-comer. The initial comer was cleared by a Redcliffs defender, but he was ruled to have infringed in making the clearance. After a number of emotional comments were made in the direction of the umpire, another pen-alty-comer was taken and Bruce Loader in the Redcliffs goal had the misfortune to have the ball lodge under his legs while he was on the ground.

Chris Leslie converted the pen-alty-stroke. PEGASUS 3 (J. Radovonich 2, P. Teague), RANGIORA 1 (D. Williams).

The young Pegasus forward line played some entertaining hockey under difficult conditions. Particularly impressive was Greg Clark on the right-wing, whose dribbling in tight, defensive positions was superb. He played a part in two of the goals. John Radovonich inside him set Clark up efficiently, and he too was a handful for the Rangiora defence.

Pegasus dominated throughout the game but was a goal down at the interval. On one of the few solo breaks that Rangiora made, Denis Williams scored after tentative trapping by the Pegasus defence. Three minutes after the interval Pegaus equalised when Radovonich scored from a penalty-stroke and he scored the third goal, also from a stroke, late in the game. Mid-way through the half Phil Teague put Pegasus ahead when he trapped a cross in front of the goal ana slipped the ball into an empty

The Pegasus defence played with more authority in the second-half, especially Michael Matsis at centre-half.

Peter Devlin kept the score from mounting in the Rangiora goal. He saves after the defence had been beaten.

SELWYN 4 (R. Schoeman, M. Beatson, C. Burtt, J. Carnoutsos), WOOLSTON 1 (G. Rhodes). Selwyn struggled in the first-half to gain an advantage over Woolston, and failed, although it was 2-1 ahead at the interval.

Woolston bad its share of possession in the mid-field and made some good attacks, but its attack fell apart when Geoff Chalklin had to leave the field with an injured ankle early in the second-half. From that point Selwyn took control and with Jon Carnoutsos and Mark Burtt combining superbly on the right-flank, Woolston spent a large part of the half defending desperately. Richard Schoeman scored the first Selwyn goal and Greg Rhodes equalised for Woolston. Craig Burtt put Selwyn ahead just before halftime, and Mark Beatson, with a penalty-stroke, and Jon Carnoutsos, added the other goals. UNIVERSITY 2 (S. Ambler, P. Borren). HIGH SCHOOL OLD BOYS 0.

The improvement in the University team from that which lost to Rangiora last Saturday was remarkable. It had so much control that Old Boys never really had any say in dictating the play. Pym Borren gave University the lead after only a few minutes when he scored from a goal-mouth scramble. The goal lifted the University play further and the insideforward trio of Steve Ambler, Borren and Selwyn Wong kept pressure on the Old Boys defence for much of the match.

Wong at inside-left, was particularly impressive, while Greg Pierce gave the forwards a good supply of ball from centre half. LINWOOD 1 (S. Willocks), SYDENHAM 0.

Linwood scored early in the game when Simon Willocks capitalised on a bad defensive error in the Sydenham circle. That was the only scoring opportunity because the majority of the game was confined to the area between the 25s and much of the play was indecisive. Each team had five penaltycorners, but neither side looked like scoring from them. Sydenham played a little better in the secondhalf. Its forwards attempted to play cohesively, but a lack of support for the player with the ball nullified attacks once thet reached rae Linwood circle. ■

P W D L F A Pt Sei. 4 3 1 0 8 1 7 Hare. 3 3 0 0 12 3 6 Peg. 4 3 0 1 11 6 6 Unsty. 4 2 1 1 4 1 5 H.S.O.B. 3 2 0 1 9 4 4 Wool. 4 1 1 2 3 7 3 Rang. 4 1 1 2 3 10 3 Red. 4 1 0 3 6 10 2 Lin. 4 1 0 3 4 12 2 Syd. 4 0 0 4 1 7 0 HAREWOOD 3 (G. Hayde, I.