Good hockey start

Press, 2 June 1989, Page 40

Good hockey start

From

KEVIN TUTTY

in Wellington

Crinkles were ironed out but most importantly wins were obtained by the Canterbury men’s and women’s hockey team in typically mediocre opening games at the Champions tournament yesterday.

Canterbury, the defending women’s champion, started boldly against Hawke’s Bay and led 4-0 at half-time but then lost its momentum in the second-half and won 5-0.

The men were ahead 30 at half-time against Northland, missed a number of good scoring chances in the second half, and settled for a 4-1 win.

Both Canterbury coaches, Shirley Haig (women) and Ewen Holstein (men), agreed the performances of their teams were indifferent but felt there were also encouraging aspects.

There were some excellent passing moves by both teams that swept the length of the field and had they been finished competently both teams would have been near double figures at the end of the game. The disquieting feature though was a tendency towards tentativeness on defence and against less compromising attacks

later in the tournament such lapses will be fatal. Mrs Haig said the pattern of the game was similar to Canterbury’s last year and it was a disturbing pattern. In several games at last year’s tournament Canterbury had good first-half leads, but could not add to them. In the vital final game against Otago it had a 2-0 lead at half-time but clung on in the second half for a 2-2 draw.

Canterbury continued to dominate the second half against Hawke’s Bay yesterday, but it could not capitalise on several scoring chances, particularly one-on-one siuations which they were able to create. There was little nervousness in the Canterbury women’s start. They thrust at the Hawke’s Bay defence immediately and after three minutes Kate Trolove, playing at her energetic best on the right wing, gave Canterbury the lead. The forwards were unable to capitalise on several strong attacks but Mary Clinton’s boisterous penalty-corner hits added goals after 15, 21 and 56 minutes. Jenny Turner scored the other with a strong shot from the top of the circle after 33 minutes. Elaine Jensen in the Canterbury goal was not

inundated with work but had to make several smart saves.

The Canterbury men did not have to rely on the forceful penalty-cor-ner striking of Chris Leslie. Its four goals were all from field play and each was spectacular.

Grant Edwards hammered home a penalty corner rebound from the top of the circle after 10 minutes; David Grundy fired in a waist-high shot five minutes later from a quick break that started on the left flank; Richard Schoeman scored the third with a deft touch a minute from half-time; and was presented with the fourth six minutes into the second half by Greg Clark who had dribbled to the back line before making a reverse stick pass to Schoeman. Northland’s goal came from Barry Tavinor two minutes from the end. Results: Men Canterbury 4 (R. Schoeman 2, D. Grundy, G. Edwards), Northland 1 (B. Tavinor); Auckland 6 (C. Chibba 2, S. Norton, H. Compain, C. Russ, M- Kake), President’s XI 0. Wellington 3, Manawatu 1. Women Canterbury 5 (M. Clinton 3, J. Turner, K. Trolove), Hawke’s Bay 0; Otago 3 (T. Bell 2, H. Stubbs), North Shore 1 (K. Weber); Auckland 3 (S. Furmage, M. Edge, L. Birkenhead), Waikato 1 (M. Hendrikse).