Little flair in main women’s hockey games

Press, 26 April 1984, Page 29

Little flair in main women’s hockey games

There was a decided lack of flair about the two feature matches in the third round of the Canterbury Women’s Hockey Association’s senior A competition at Hagley Park yesterday.

Bumside retained its perfect record this season by beating Woolston 1-0 and Harewood beat Selwyn by the same margin.

On paper at least, the two games promised much with the teams evenly matched.

Sadly, however, the standard of play failed to match the brilliance of the day, and in the Harewood-Selwyn encounter in particular, it became a matter of the side making the least mistakes winning. Harewood’s ultimate success stemmed from its greater commitment, particularly from its frontline forwards, in gaining and then keeping possession. Led by Cindy Smith at centre forward, Harewood was keener to tackle hard, instead of waiting for its opponent to make its own mistakes as Selwyn did. Harewood could rely on its defenders to make determined efforts to get the ball back out of its half quickly, and when Smith and Maree Flannery, the inside right, combined to work the ball upfield it looked strong.

Harewood allowed Selwyn more room to work in once the left wing, Linda Bowie, had goaled after 20 minutes, but came back strongly just before the end of the spell, forcing two penalty corners. In the second half, Selwyn had more of the play, but compounded its mistakes. At one stage, it earned two free hits just outside the circle, and looked as though it was troubling Harewood, but instead the chances were missed and

the pressure on Harewood eased.

Selwyn seemed to be the author of its own misfortunes. Too often it wasted possession, particularly from free hits, as players hesitated in passing and the faster Harewood defenders came through on them.

The midfield combination failed to combine smoothly, and Barbara Mitchell was left to do much of the hard running up front without support. The Bumside-Woolston match was played at a slightly faster pace, but still failed to fire, a pity considering the abilities of both teams. Jane Earnshaw, Bumside's goal scorer, was the pick of both sets of forwards. She covered the left wing ably, and her speed to the long ball put through by Anthea Feaver and the midfielders was noticeable.

Marina Nijland was also prominent on the other flank, out Bumside too failed to capitalise on its chances, and Judy Phillips, usually the dynamo of the Burnside attack, had a quiet day. Woolston missed the services of its usual captain, Debbie Hockley, and lacked power up front. Sue Duggan and Mary Davies had useful matches, but the play lacked definition. Janice Provan, the left back,

played with authority and relished her role of subduing Pliillips, but the fact that her role was so noticeable also spoke for the quality of play, or lack of it, among the remaining players. Chris McDonnell, although failing to repulse Earnshaw’s goal, had a good match and pilled off one spectacular save late in the game when Phillips cracked the ball towards the net.

In the other matches, Pegasus recorded a good 4-0 win against Sydenham, and Carlton, as expected, made light work of Lincoln College, winning 8-0.

Scores and scorers:— Harewood 1 (L. Bowie). Selwyn 0. Half-time: 1-0.

Bumside 1 (J. Beattie), Woolston 0. Half-time: 1-0.

Pegasus 4 (K. Hook, J. Hibbert, L. Riesterer, D. Robinson), Sydenham 0. Half-time: 20.

Carlton 8 (S. Haig 4, C. Thompson 3, S. Edmundson), Lincoln College 0. Half-time: 20.

Results of the senior reserve matches in the N.Z. Building Society-sponsored competition were:—

Woolston 2, Bumside II 1; Hornby 7, Carlton 1; Rang! Ruru 1, Pegasus 0; University 2, Harewood 1.