Leaders fight on

Press, 12 June 1989, Page 24

Leaders fight on

Pegasus and Harewood continued their duel for supremacy in the Christchurch premier men’s hockey championship on Saturday, both teams recording wins. Pegasus maintained its one point advantage at the head of the points table.

Pegasus beat Redcliffs, 2-0, on Saturday and Harewood had to fight to overcome University, 3-1. Selwyn moved into third place with a comfortable 7-1 win against Woolston. Selwyn 7, Woolston 1 The normally stoic defence of Woolston was absent yesterday. Selwyn attacked frequently and successfully and had a 4-1 advantage at the interval.

Selwyn was mindful of having a similar lead in its firstround game with Woolston and then struggling to win 43. There was no prospect of a repeat. Selwyn maintained a firm hold, adding three second-half goals. All Selwyn’s goals came from penalty corners or corner rebounds. George Carnoutsos scored three. Brent Sherwin two and Mark Lance and Robin Wilson scored one each. HAREWOOD 3, UNIVERSITY 1 University is never an easy side to beat and Harewood found that, almost to its cost.

The University defence was tenacious, marking closely and denying Harewood the freedom it needed to launch its attacks.

University started boldly and Harewood was fortunate to hold it at bay in the first 10 minutes, but slowly Harewood started to exert some influence.

Harewood had six players in the successful Canterbury team that won the Champions tournament in Wellington last week and, not surprisingly, they lacked the spark they had at that tournament. A minute before half-time University forced a penalty corner and Mark Tynan slammed the ball past the defence. Harewood started the second half with greater urgency and determination, but University still continued to attack at every opportunity and the Harewood defence looked shaky. University came close to scoring several times.

Grant Edwards, who a few minutes earlier had a shot deflected outside the net, equalised 10 minutes into the half with a firmly hit shot from the top of the circle, after robbing a defender inside the 25m area. Harewood then had to survive a period of intense pressure from University, including several penalty-corners.

but after 16 minutes Harewood took the lead from a penalty stroke by Chris Leslie after a shot at goal was stopped on the line by a University defenders’ foot. Play continued to see-saw. but Harewood was better able to finish its attacks and David Cox completed the scoring a minute from full-time.

PEGASUS 2, REDCLIFFS 0 Pegasus squandered several good scoring chances in the first half, but there was never much doubt that it would eventually overcome the young Redcliffs side. Pegasus was quicker to the loose ball, and attacked the Redcliffs circle frequently. To is credit, the Redcliffs defence never relented under the weight of attacks. Mark Gowmans at left half played particularly well, marking David Grundy on the Pegasus right wing closely. Pegasus overcame the scoring drought in the second half. John Radovonich scored first, then Guy Edlin chimed in. Pegasus had the buffer it needed to ensure it gained another two points in its bid to retain the senior championship and keep ahead of Harewood.

Radovonich set up play effectively from inside-right for Pegasus and Edlin gave a good supply of ball to the forwards from centre-half.