Harewood still three points ahead

Press, 29 June 1987, Page 24

Harewood still three points ahead

Harewood maintained its three point lead at the head of the Christchurch premier men’s hockey championship and is headed for a showdown with the second placed team, Pegasus next week-end. A win to Harewood next week-end would place it in a highly advantageous position, with five rounds to play, but a win by Pegasus would throw the championship wide open. Selwyn maintains third place only a point behind Pegasus, and after its 3-1 win against University on Saturday appears to be playing its best hockey of the season. Harewood beat Rangiora 50 yesterday and Pegasus had a comfortable 8-0 win against Sydenham.

Positions in the middle of the points table tightened up with Redcliffs beating High School Old Boys 2-1, and in the other game played yesterday, Woolston beat Linwood 3-1.

The points table is:

Selwyn 3, University 1. University dispensed with the man to man marking of key opposition forwards, a ploy that served it well the previous week when it held the competition leader, Harewood to a draw.

Had it employed closer marking against Selwyn it might have scratched out another draw because Selwyn enjoyed considerable freedom in the mid-field where Mark Burtt and Robin Wilson directed play intelligently to set up opportunities for the University, which played its best hockey in the first-half

scored after 17 minutes when Mark Tynan converted a penaltycomer, the culmination of a series of attacks in which Peter Tynan and Chris Dockeriil were prominent.

The lead was short lived though. Four minutes later Selwyn received a penalty-corner. A variation was used and the shot hit the goal-post but rebounded for Brent Sherwin to push it into the net amid a scrambling University defence. Selwyn maintained control in the second-half and Mark Burtt gave Selwyn what seemed an inevitable lead mid-way through the half when he ran onto a pass in the circle from Jon Camoutsos, drew the goal-keeper and slipped the ball past him. Craig Armitage completed the scoring for Selwyn when he scored from a penalty-comer five minutes from full-time.

George Camoutsos played at right-half for Selwyn giving more flexibility to the attack. Several times he dribbled through to link with the forwards and Robin Wilson did the same from centre-half to keep the momentum of attacks flowing. The University attack lost its cohesion in the second-half placing greater pressure on the defence, where Greg Pierce had an excellent game, tackling and clearing well on deep defence, and passing swiftly to the forwards, although they were not able to make good use of the service.

AU the Selwyn forwards played useful roles and the full-backs, Mark Beatson and Armitage were a safe final line of defence.

Redcliffs 2, High School Old Boys 1. Old Boys learned that fortunes can change quickly. After beating second placed Pegasus the previous week Old Boys failed to make the most of its chances against Redcliffs and paid the penalty when Redcliffs scored a late goal. The match was open and even with play switching quickly from defence to attack especially in the second half as both teamcsought to take the lead after G®Edlin equalised for Old a minute into the second half. Mur-

ray Marks had scored for Redcliffs after a similar period in the first half.

Redcliffs always looked more likely to score because it used Richard Schoeman effectively at centre forward feeding him with through passes that frequently placed the Old Boys defence under pressure.

Old Boys had a series of pen-alty-comers mid-way through the second-half, but failed to convert them. Twice Schoeman did everything but score. First he hit a goal-post with a powerful shot and then he had the ball in the net, but kicked it on the way. When he finally scored the winning goal the Old Boys defence protested that he again kicked the ball on the way to the goal. Brent Stanley and Richard Munt were other effective forwards for Redcliffs and Mark Gowans at centre-half distributed the ball well and tidied up several times in deep defence. Anthony Thomas and Phill Crisp on the wings were the most dangerous Old Boys forwards, and Rob Smith tackled and covered well in the defence. Rob Pentecost made several timely saves in goal. HAREWOOD 5, RANGIORA 0

Harewood had 80 per cent of the possession in this game but could not convert it into goals. Harewood was only two goals ahead at half-time but it was in this period that it played its best hockey. Harewood passed the ball about fluently in the first 35 minutes but holes in the Rangiora defence were difficult to find because of the stacked defence. David Penfold did find a gap after 16 minutes from the top of the circle and the other goal in the half came from a penalty-stroke by Chris Leslie eight minutes later.

Penalty-comers were hard to come by but from one of the few Harewood received Chris Leslie scored 17 minutes into the second-half and three minutes later Grant

Edwards added another after a rare mistake by Peter Devlin in the Rangiora goal. Leslie scored the final goal in the last minute and again it came from a Leslie, penalty corner.

Grant Edwards on the right-wing and Baivant Bhana inside him were the most penetrative Harewood forwards, and the Harewood half line kept a steady supply of ball moving to the attack. Rangiora lacked any attack to speak of although a couple of times late in the game it put together passing moves that forced penalty-comers. In the defence John and Paul Woods both carried a high work load and tackled particularly well. PEGASUS 8, SYDENHAM 0 Pegasus was never in any danger of losing, but Sydenham embarrassed its defence often enough to cause concern. After playing indifferently in the first half and scoring three goals, Pegasus improved in the second-half, to finally overwhelm the Sydenham defence. Much of the Pegasus play was riddled with errors, but its second-half resurgence saw it overcoming the errors, playing with vitality and making the most of a number of scoring opportunties. Its players then began to move and pass in a manner it had not previously achieved. The Sydenham defence faltered and allowed the Pegasus forwards to progress towards its' goal.

There were occasions when the Sydenham forwards combined effectively. On those occasions the defence, while under pressure, never looked greatly endangered, but Sydenham did force a' number of penalty-comers in each half, but was unable to scife from them. Hie Pegasus forwards’ better showing in the second-

half coincided with an improved performance by its inside-right John Radovonich. Greg Clark was lethal throughout, always being a danger to Sydenham in their circle. Phil Teague, the in-side-left, was always the most constructive of the forward line.

In the half-line, Scott Hobson and Michael Rakowitz were unobtrusively effective covering and passing best among the defenders. For Sydenham, the forwards Athol Forrest, Owen Pauling and Steven Clarke combined well on occasions. Behind them, the right-half, Dick Pettet was the best performed defender, his skills being efficient and his covering swift and thoughtful. WOOLSTON 3, LINWOOD 1

Woolston built a comfortable three-goal lead by the interval but its play fell away in the second half, the forwards losing the cohesion they displayed in the first half to set up the three goals. Linwood, which has had a dreadful season scored a rare goal in the second-half through Charlie Dickson its most lively foreward. The goal was only Linwood’s fifth in 12 games. On the other end of the scale it had conceded 81.

So unfamiliar is goal-scor-ing to the Linwood forwards that twice in the last minute they missed relatively easy shots at goal. Phillip Gear was an energetic worker for Woolston in its attack and Geoff Chalklin also made some effective runs. In the Woolston defence Paul Ritani was a sound tackler.

Roy Parry was a tireless worker in the Linwood attack and John Whitford made a comuoendable return ito seniaL hockey after several yeanEend gave a little more stability to the defence.

P W D L F A Pt Harewd 12 10 2 0 59 5 22 Pegas 12 9 2 1 57 12 19 Selwyn 12 9 0 3 30 17 18 Univer. 12 5 4 3 33 12 14 HSOB 12 6 2 4 41 21 14 Redclff 12 6 1 5 31 21 13 Woolst. 12 5 2 5 18 22 12 Sydenhm 12 2 0 10 9 42 4 Rangi. 12 2 0 10 9 59 4 Linwd 12 0 0 12 5 81 0