Hockey teams draw

Press, 21 August 1989, Page 27

Hockey teams draw

The frequent Canterbury men's hockey claim that it suffers in its isolation from the strong northern • centres, may have been answered when Canterbury A drew with Canterbury B, 3-3, at Porritt Park yesterday. The annual Canterbury Day match provided a stern test for the A team, Canterbury B fighting back from a 0-1 deficit. The score was 2-2 at half-time and the B team tied the match with seconds to go.

The A team coach, Mr Ewan Holstein, was not pleased with the performance. He told his team: “It’s a timely reminder of what’s required — there was not enough running and commitment to basics of the game.”

It took the A team a full quarter hour to get going and Richard Schoeman, the centre forward, scored from a powerful shot after 17

miriutes. Three minutes later, the B left wing, Jon Carnoutsos, found vast space in the A defence and slipped the ball past the goalkeeper, Nigel Gregory, from wide out.

The A team’s international inside left Chris Leslie, hammered in his team’s second penalty corner, and with three minutes of the half left, Phil Teague trapped and pushed past Gregory after Chris Dockerill had slipped the A team’s cover,, to pass back to him. Five minutes into the second half, Leslie converted his second penalty corner. The score remained 3-2 until the latter stages of the thirtyfourth minute of the half, when Dockerill pulled his team level. There was no time for further play.

• The national women’s hockey champions, Canterbury A, beat Canterbury B, 41, at Porritt Park yesterday

afternoon, in a match that provided a strong test of its worth.

The A team scored three goals within 15 minutes, Kate Trolove getting two and Sue Duggan one. For the remainder of the half, the A team rather rested on its laurels, while the B team fought hard to get back into the game.

Three minutes into the second half, Maia Lewis put the Bs back into the game with a field goal, but from that point the A team largely dominated, although its performance was patchy.

Just one minute after the B team had scored Mary Clinton struck home a solid penalty corner. Canterbury A’s dominance was based on its reversion to the more traditional 5-3-2 field formation, reducing the space available to its opponents and allowing more precise controlled passes.