Men’s competition lead shared

Press, 7 May 1984, Page 33

Men’s competition lead shared

Harewood joined Selwyn at the head of the Noel Leeming senior men’s hockey championship on Saturday, but Harewood’s 20 win against Pegasus to take it to the joint leadership will not be remembered fondly.

Neither Harewood nor Pegasus could control the ball on a bumpy ground at Nunweek Park, and what should have been a skilful game became chock-full of errors.

Selwyn, meanwhile, played inconsistently against High School Old Boys and could only draw, 1-1, and thus lose its place as sole leader of the championship. Old Boys moved into third place three points behind the leaders, but both Harewood and Old Boys have a game in hand, the result of which will have a big bearing on the championship. Should Harewood win it would open a comfortable gap in the race for the title, but an Old Boys win would leave the top three teams covered by one point.

Redcliffs continued its steady move up the points table when it beat Rangiora, 1-0, at Porritt Park. The result was no indication of the run of play. Redcliffs always appeared to have the game under control in spite of its tenuous lead.

Woolston scored two goals in a scrappy game against Linwood, while the fifth match between University and Sydenham was deferred. University has nine of its players in the New Zealand universities team which left on Saturday for a two week tour of Australia. The points table is:

aya. u i a i o i Selwyn 1 (G. Carnoutsos), High School Old Boys 1 (G. Marshall) Old Boys beat Selwyn, 1-0, in a lively semi-final of the indoor

championship on Thursday night, and Selwyn was out to avenge that loss at Barrington Park on Saturday. Throughout the first half it appeared that Selwyn would have revenge. It attacked with control and vigour, mainly through the right flank and centre, but it could not break the enthusiastic Old Boys defence and some smart goalkeeping by Rob Pentecost The second half was only five minutes old when Selwyn forced a penalty corner and George Carnoutsos scored when his shot rebounded into the top of the net off a defender’s stick.

But Old Boys fought back immediately and from a penalty corner it was awarded a penalty stroke, from which Gary Marshall scored.

From that point Old Boys had control of the game and kept forcing Selwyn onto defence with its swift counter attacks and tireless hunting of the ball Three times Selwyn defenders whipped the ball off the goal line in despairing saves. Robin Wilson, who was the outstanding player in the first half at centre-half for Selwyn, had less authority after the interval and consequently Selwyn’s play suffered.

Richard Schoeman, Mark Burtt and George Carnoutsos combined well often in the Selwyn forward line, but Carnoutsos tended to run his other forwards out of position and neglected his brother, Jon, on the right-wing. The Old Boys defence centred on Rob Smith and Gary Marshall, but each of the other defenders did his task admirably and all the forwards worked tirelessly. The most constructive were Geoff Deakins and Gavin Cumberpatch. Harewood 2 (I. Ri'ach, C. Leslie), Pegasus 0

Nunweek park was dry and bumpy for this game, and neither side helped by trying to play the game too fast

Forwards endeavoured to outsprint their markers with consequent loss of control, and both teams frequently attempted long passes with little success. Had either team opted for a more sedate pace and a little more care with trapping, it would have bad a distinct advantage. As it was neither team was able to control the game for any length of time. Harewood’s first goal came from a penalty stroke mid-way through the first half. It looked a marginal decision but Chris Leslie converted the chance. Play remained mainly indecisive and scrappy and was contained to the mid-field until three minutes from full-time when Harewood put together its only lengthy passing move of the game. The ball moved the length of the field and Glen Hayde and lan Riach combined neatly at the top of the circle to give Riach the opening for the second goal. Leslie, Riach and Mike Skilton,

when he received the ball, played well in the Harewood attack and on defence, David Penfold, Andy Innes and Chris Rawlings were steady. Andrew Dove was the most constructive Pegasus forward and Bruce Radovonich and Micheal Matsis the best of the defence. Woolston 2 (G. Chalklin, W. Leslie), Linwood 0 Both Woolston and Linwood found it difficult to initiative moves in their game. There was a lot of scrappy play in the mid-field and Woolston won because occasionally it was able to get two or three forwards moving fluently. Warren Leslie, who made good progress on the left wing frequently, scored the first goal when he picked up a cross from the right wing, Graham Wilson. Simon Willocks had a good chance to equalise for Linwood and then Geoff Chalklin, the energetic Woolston forward, scored from a penalty corner to make the game safe for Woolston.

Malcolm Wood and Greg Rhodes played steadily in the Woolston defence and Wood, at left-half, initiatied a number of attacks with crisp passes.

On attack Leslie, Chalklin and Craig Hobbs combined efficiently. The Linwood defence relied heavily on Mark and Brett Hobson on deep defence, and Craig Hastie gave assistance and tried to set the forwards moving without much success. Willocks was the best of the forwards, but lacked support in the Woolston 25m area.

Redcliffs 1 (M. Marks), Rangiora 0 The score gave no indication of the superiority Redcliffs had over Rangiora. Redcliffs mounted frequent attacks from all flanks while Rangiora’s attacks were few.

However, Rangiora had to be complimented for its taut defence, and while it was only a goal down it forced caution in the Redcliffs’ defence, because a goal conceded would have been a vital lost point to Redcliffs.

Peter Devlin, in the Rangiora goal, was again the foundation of his side. In the second half he stopped several hard penalty corners, and other shots from field goals. His agility this season has been recognised with a trial for Canterbury B next week-end. The only goal of the game was scored by the Redcliffs right wing, Murray Marks, soon after the interval. It was the culmination of a good forward move, with several passes being strung together before the defence was beaten.

Brent Stanly and Murray Johnson combined well for Redcliffs on attack and posed a number of problems for the Woolston defence. Behind them, Peter Christensen, at centre-half, had his best game of the season.

John Woods tried valiantly at centre-half to initiate attacks for Rangiora without much success. Most of the sorties were of a solo nature, but a couple had the Redcliffs defence stretched.

P W D L F A Pt Hare. 5 5 0 0 15 3 10 Sei 6 4 2 0 10 2 10 H.S.O.B. 5 3 1 1 12 6 7 Peg. 6 3 0 3 12 10 6 Red. 6 3 0 3 10 12 6 Unsty. 5 2 1 2 4 2 5 Wool. 6 2 1 3 7 10 5 Rang. 6 1 2 3 4 12 4 Lin. 6 1 0 5 4 15 2 Svd. 5 0 1 4 2 8 1