Harewood squanders hockey lead

Press, 24 June 1985, Page 28

Harewood squanders hockey lead

Liquorland Harewood had its challengers at its mercy after Saturday’s matches in the Noel Leeming senior men’s hockey championship. It had a lead of two points over its nearest rival, University, but squandered that handy lead when it lost 0-1 to University yester-

day. Yesterday’s match had been deferred from early in the month and after University was surprisingly held to a scoreless draw by Woolston on Saturday, yesterday’s match was crucial to both teams.

University’s win has evened the competition. Selwyn is still third three points behind the leaders but its impressive 3-0 win against High School Old Boys’ in another deferred match yesterday, suggested it will be a much more dominant force in the second round. Redcliffs moved into fourth place on Saturday when it beat Old Boys 1-0, while further down the tables the woes of the young Pegasus team continued. It could manage only two draws at the week-end against teams it should have beaten.

SELWYN 3 (R. Wilson 2, M. Burtt), HIGH SCHOOL OLD BOYS 0. In the first 35 minutes of this match Selwyn played its best hockey of the season. After an initial settling period of five minites it began to attack the Old Boys’ circle relentlessly but without success. At the end of the first half it had not scored in spite of numerous shots at goals and eight penalty comers. The most encouraging factor was the play of George Carnoutsos. He was back to his most dangerous form, scampering through the Old Boys’ defence ■ and combining expertly with Richard Schoeman at centre forward, and Mark Burtt, the inside left. The second half threatened to be a repeat of the first. Twice in the first couple of minutes Selwyn had good scoring chances, but then Robin Wilson scored with a direct shot from a penalty corner. Five minutes later Mark Burtt scored the second goal and five minutes from full time Wilson scored again from a penalty stroke. Played on an outside ground at

Porritt Park, the surface offered a true bounce and both teams appreciated it. Wilson dominated the mid-field, delivering some well timed passes to the forwards, who themselves passed the ball extremely effectively at close quarters. Craig Burtt was a sound full-back for Selwyn. For Old Boys, Phill Crisp made some strong runs down the right wing, and Anthony Thomas hunted the ball without success in the circle. Chris Tye was an effective tackler at left half and Rob Smith was a sturdy last line of defence. Rob Pentecost in the Old Boys’ goal made a number of excellent saves in the first half. UNIVERSITY 1 (P. Tynan), HAREWOOD 0. The standard of play in this match never reached the level expected. The error rate in both sides was far in excess of what one would expect from the championship leaders. Peter Tynan scored the only goal 15 minutes into the first half after a penalty corner, and although it spent two long periods on attack, Harewood only twice looked like equalising. Generally, it lacked the urgency to breach the University defence and its passing in close situations let it down time and again. Balvant Bhana gave impetus to the Harewood attack but tended to over-dribble. lan Riach was neglected on the left wing and well contained whenever he did receive the ball, and Ross Thomson on the right was seldom able to break the University defence. David Penfold had a dreadful day at centre half. His normally reliable trapping was poor, and Glenn Hayde suffered from the same malaise at right half. Greg Pierce was an efficient centre half for University and Selwyn Maister, playing at inside left, did a commendable job assisting the defence. Harewood’s best chance to equalise came 10 minutes from full time, but the ball was pushed outside the goal. PEGASUS 0, LINWOOD 0. Linwood continued to show the improvement which has marked its play in the last few weeks. It did not quite have the same dominance as Pegasus but it defended stoically and showed it was prepared to match Pegasus with the urgency of its attacks. The game was played at a fast pace throughout but close marking by both defences limited the scoring opportunities. The relative merits of the two attacks could be gauged by the penalty corner count. Pegasus had nine and Linwood 4. The Pegasus defence lacked the steadiness that has been a hallmark of its play for most of the season. Its best defender was

Andrew Brydon in goal. Simon Willcocks worked enthusiastically for Linwood on attack although his effectiveness was restricted by Andrew Dove, who marked him closely. REDCLIFFS 1 (H. McGregor), HIGH SCHOOL OLD BOYS 0. Not for the first time this season Old Boys lived to rue the fact that its penalty corner combination was not operating with any fluency. It forced 13 penalty corners during the game but not one of those caused undue concern in the Redcliffs defence.

Geoff Deakins, the general of the Old Boys forward line, had to leave the field early in the first half, and the Old Boys’ attack lost much of its impetus because of his absence. Gavin Cumberpatch at centre forward strived to keep the attack moving and a couple of times in the second half it almost succeeded.

Old Boys’ dominated the first half but after the interval Redcliffs shared possession and made some strong attacks through centre field and down the right flank. Murray Marks on the Redcliffs right wing was more than a nuisance, and with a little more control would have been much more effective. He did make the break five minutes from the end from which Hamish McGregor scored to give Redcliffs the win.

In the Old Boys’ defence, Rob Smith did a tremendous amount of work and Peter Christensen and Rob Wilson were prominent in the Redcliffs defence. Brent Stanley was a tireless inside left for Redcliffs several times in the second half, clearing from his own circle when it was under pressure. PEGASUS 3 (J. Radovonich, G. Clark, D. Grundy), RANGIORA o (M. Amos, P. Agent, P. Downs). Both teams scored as many goals as they have all season, but for Pegasus the opportunity for a win was lost when it also conceded as many as it has to date. Pegasus looked set for a win with two early goals but then it allowed Rangiora to draw level within minutes and in the second half, to catch up again. After 10 minutes poor defence on the Rangiora goal-line resulted in a penalty stroke from which John Radovonich scored. After 20 minutes a quick break from its own half gave Pegasus its second goal. Almost immediately Rangiora came back to reduce the lead and five minutes later scored again. After an early second-half settling period, Pegasus held complete dominance when it found a touch it had not known all season. The passing in this period was neat and to the stick, and looked capable of tearing Rangiora apart. But then, with the subbing off of Darryl McEwen, the period of dominance passed and the Pegasus defence succumbed to Rangiora for the third time.

McEwen, Radovonich, David Grundy and Michael Matis in particular for-Pegasus, were able to pass and beat their opponents almost at will, while making progress on the right, but unfortunately those inspired moves failed to yield goals. Along with Radovonich, Andrew Dove at inside left was the architect of the Pegasus forwards’ best moves.

For Rangiora the left back, Martin Amos, withstood most of the Pegasus right side attacks,

while in the forwards at inside left, Phil Downs had a good game, making effective use of passes from the centre half, John Wood. SELWYN 3 (G. Carnoutsos, C. Burtt, D. Clements), LINWOOD 0. Selwyn almost looked master of the situation against Linwood United, but the latter seemed capable of matching Selwyn’s play at times, and in the second half had a period when a more fortuitous roll of the ball might have given if sufficient goals to equalise. Selwyn, however, would have been unfortunate to have drawn because it was better able to retaliate to the best of Linwood’s efforts.

The game at times produced hockey worthy of the game with both teams putting together short flurries of passes that threatened each other’s defences, but in the final analysis they foundered on congested defences because of the slowness of their forward movement.

The exception to this was in the second half when Linwood broke through the Selwyn defence on three occasions and had it scrambling. Linwood could take heart from the occasion because it showed a potential to match other teams that it has not hitherto shown.

For Selwyn, George Carnoutsos, after missing games through illness, looked sharp at times and made sound upfield passes that troubled the Linwood defence. On the left, David Clements made the most of a number of opportunities to assure his team of a win, while at centre half Robin Wilson had an up and down game but was generally too sound for the Linwood forwards. At left half, David Templeton was hard to beat and his covering was a vital factor in preventing Linwood scoring. For Linwood, Charlie Dickson, matched against Templeton, had a good game in the manner in which he received and passed the ball. Simon Willocks beside him toiled to set up attacks. On defence, Mark Hobson and Roy Parry on the left made life difficult at times for the Selwyn forwards and were able to foil many of their attacks. HAREWOOD 4 (P. Hayde 2, G. Innes, C. Leslie), SYDENHAM 0.

Harewood played some vintage hockey in the first half against Sydenham, throwing the ball about with skill, and its half-time lead of three goals might have been higher but for some good goal-keeping by Marty Fitzsimons. Harewood took the lead after only three minutes when Graeme Innes scored from a penalty corner variation. Chris Leslie scored the second goal from a penalty stroke and Pat Hayde the third from a rebound. Harewood dominated the second half but Sydenham, with its defensive area over-populated, made it difficult for Harewood to break through. Pat Hayde scored the only goal in the half, again picking up a rebound.

In the last 10 minutes, Harewood put extreme pressure on the Sydenham defence but Dick Pettit, Lionel Wong, Rasick Ganda and, the coach, Bryan Reid, who was called on to fill a gap in the defence, all tackled and cleared confidently. UNIVERSITY 0, WOOLSTON 0. University gave by far its worst performance of the season against Woolston. Although the defence held, the usual confidence and

security was missing and a couple of times the Woolston attack threatened a breach.

The University coach, Cyril Walter, said it all at the start of the second half when he asked a spectator: “What time are University playing here today?” Pym Borren was absent from the forward line, but his replacement, the former New Zealand representative, Selwyn Maister, was an adequate fill-in. Unfortunately his team-mates in the attack did not play well. They missed too many traps, threw too many bad passes, and got into too many muddles in the Woolston circle.

Woolston looked more like scoring as the game progressed. Each swift attack looked more like producing a goal because there was an increasing agitation among the University players at their inability to score which led in turn to more errors.

Greg Pierce, the University centre half, was one who remained ’calm in the face of adversity. Woolston spent a large part of the game on defence, but it was a well-organised defence which marked University closely and the players never relented in their duties, and University had no answer.

THE POINTS TABLE IS: A Pt P W D L F Harewood 10 9 0 1 33 7 18 University 10 8 2 0 19 3 18 Selwyn 10 7 1 2 24 6 15 Redcliffs 10 4 2 4 9 12 10 H.S.O.B. 10 2 4 4 10 13 8 Wooiston 10 1 6 3 6 12 8 Linwood 10 2 3 5 7 21 7 Pegasus 10 2 2 6 11 13 6 Rangiora 10 2 2 6 9 23 6 Sydenham 10 1 2 7 4 22 4