Harewood finishes unbeaten

Press, 25 August 1986, Page 24

Harewood finishes unbeaten

Liquorland Harewood successfully ended the Noel teeming senior men’s hockey championship on Saturday when it defeated Rangiora, 20, to maintain its unbeaten record for the season.

Harewood had clinched the championship a week earlier when it beat Selwyn, the only team with a remote chance of taking the title. Besides maintaining its unbeaten status, the championship was a triumph for Selwyn Maister, the former New Zealand player who was coaching Harewood for the first time this season. The team still has another goal — the Adidas national inter-club championship. It was the beaten finalist last year and hopes to be in the final again on November 16. Harewood's winning margin of five points was decisive. In addition, it scored nine more goals than any other team and conceded five fewer than any other side.

Conditions for the final round were difficult. Steady rain left grounds muddy and players wet and cold. In spite of this, the young Wormaid Pegasus side unleashed its best performance of the season to cane a hapless Woolston, 9-0. Pegasus had the ball in the net a tenth time but the goal was disallowed.

Pegasus made a bold advance in the second round of the championship. It scored 28 goals — three more than Harewood — and conceded just six, the same number as Harewood.

Selwyn beat Kent Prier Redcliffs, 5-1, at Barnett Park and held second place in the championship.

High School Old Boys beat Daniel Visser Sydenham, 1-0, in a dour match at Porritt Park, and University defaulted against Linwood. The final points table is.—

5, D. Grundy 2, P. Teague, A. Cherry), WOOLSTON 0. Pegasus made light of the rain-soaked ground at Porritt Park, keeping Woolston constantly on the back foot .with accurate passes that split Woolston wide open. David Grundy scored the first two goals and then John Radovonich started a scoring spree that ended with him netting five, in what was the most comprehensive win in senior hockey for more than 10 years. Pegasus went to the interval 4-0 ahead. In the second half, as the score mounted, a frantic chase began for double figures. Pegasus thought it had achieved this rare feat late in the match but the tenth goal was disallowed.

Both Pegasus wings played well up field and they were constantly fed with good passes, which were used to great effect, with the ball carried deep into Woolston territory. The win concluded an excellent second round for Pegasus. It scored 13 points, only one less than the runnerup, Selwyn, and four fewer

than Harewood. More importantly, the young Pegasus team showed a hint of the hard-nosed maturity that will make it a championship contender in the next couple of seasons. HAREWOOD 2 (C. Leslie 2), RANGIORA 0.

Two goals by Chris Leslie, Harewood's leading goalscorer during the season — he scored 35 of the team’s 56 goals — gave the champion a comfortable end to the season.

Both goals came, from penalties, the first a penalty corner and the second a penalty stroke. Harewood did a lot more attacking as the match progressed, but could not break a determined defence. Numerous times the Harewood forwards burst into the Rangiora circle, only to be robbed of the ball or have their shots blocked by Peter Devlin, one of the most consistent goal-keepers in the senior competition. In the second half, he saved a penalty stroke taken by Leslie. The Nunweek Park surface was wet on top but the Harewood players handled it well, passing the ball about confidently. Their one fault was that they failed to exploit space behind Rangiora defenders, who found it difficult to turn and chase on the damp surface. David Penfold distributed the ball well from centre half for Harewood, and on the left flank, Chris Leslie and lan Riach made good progress with some quick, short passing moves. All the Rangiora defenders played soundly under pressure, tackling well and clearing the ball effectively from

deep defence. HIGH SCHOOL OLD BOYS 1 (I. Bolton), SYDENHAM 0. Ivan Bolton scored his first senior goal for Old Boys 10 minutes into the game, and as it transpired it was the only goal in a mediocre match, with most of the play confined to the mid-field.

Bolton, playing in the unfamiliar position of inside left, was on hand to whip the ball out of the mud in front of the goal after Phil Crisp had dashed down the right wing and crashed the ball into the circle. Old Boys had a chance to score again from a penalty stroke, but the push by Steve Parry was saved by Marty Fitzsimons in goal. Sydenham's two most accomplished forwards, Raki Manihera and Athol Forrest, combined well several times to take the Sydenham attack to the Old Boys circle, but the cover defence and tackling of the Old Boys rearguard tidied up play well. To their credit, both teams attempted to play controlled hockey on a difficult surface.

Fitzsimmons was Sydenham’s most reliable defender, as he has been so often during the season, and Rob Smith and Steve Parry played soundly on defence for Old Boys. Old Boys, after a sedate first round in which it took eight points and scored 11 goals and conceded eight, had a whirlwind second round, earning nine points scoring 14 goals, but conceding 19. SELWYN 5, REDCLIFFS 1. Selwyn ended the season with a flourish, winning by a

goal margin that it has rarely been able to achieve. Barnett Park, although wet and a little bumpy, was generally in good condition, allowing good hockey to be played. Selwyn attacked regularly, putting Redcliffs under immense pressure. A measure of the way Redcliffs withstood the pressure was that all but one of Selwyn’s goals came from penalty comers. Selwyn attacked immediately and scored almost within the first minute. But, in spite of a constant flow of ball towards the Redcliffs goal, it was not able to score again until close to half-time. A third goal early in the second half made the match safe, but when Redcliffs scored its only goal after 20 minutes there was the outside possibility that it might make a match of it. But any such hopes were quelled by two slick deflection goals from Richard Schoeman, following penalty comer shots.

George Camoutsos’s workload, dribbling and feeding his other forwards, was among his best of the season. On his right, Jon Camoutsos also had a good game for Selwyn, moving well with the ball and giving excellent crosses.

For Redcliffs, Bruce Loader had a particularly good first half, blocking a number of point-blank shots. In the backs, Ben Herbert defended well, and was ably assisted by a cool Mark Gowans at centre half.

The inside right, Lee Munt, worked hard in setting up a number of good moves, which were welcomed by Murray Marks on the right wing.

P W D L F A Pt Hare. 18 15 3 0 56 10 33 Sei. 18 13 2 3 47 20 28 Unsty 18 11 3 4 33 15 25 Peg. 18 11 2 5 47 17 24 Red. 18 6 6 6 18 30 18 H.S.O.B. 18 7 3 8 25 27 17 Un. 18 5 3 10 14 30 13 Syd. 18 4 2 12 10 32 10 Rang. 18 2 2 14 10 32 10 Wool. 18 2 2 14 6 44 6 PEGASUS 9 (J. , Radovonich