Otago beaten for semi-final spot

Press, 31 August 1989, Page 48

Otago beaten for semi-final spot

By

KEVIN TUTTY

Otago, a short odds to grab one of the four semifinal places in the ANZ Bank national women’s hockey tournament at Porritt Park, had the position snatched from its grasp by Waikato which scored an upset, 2-1, win yesterday.

Otago always looked to have the Premier Trophy match under control. It scored probably the best goal of the tournament after 18 minutes but missed a bagful of other scoring chances, including two shots which struck goalposts. Waikato only managed three sorties into the Otago circle in the second half and scored from two of them, the second with five minutes left.

Otago suddenly found itself facing exclusion from the semi-finals. In those final desperate minutes it set up two more scoring opportunities but they were not accepted by the forwards.

Besides missing a place in the semi-finals Otago has also squandered its chances of playing in the trans-Tasman series next March. The top three provinces from the tournament will be selected for that tournament to play visiting Australian teams. Canterbury A and Auckland A duly won their pools by recording their third wins yesterday. Auckland had to fight hard to overcome an enthusiastic Wellington A team, 3-1, and Canterbury had its hardest game of the tournament before overcoming Hawke’s Bay, 4-0.

In the semi-finals today Canterbury plays Waikato and Auckland plays Hawke’s Bay. Otago looked capable of piling on the goals against Waikato and its only goal of the game was superbly conceived. Tina Bell and Amanda Smith combined down the right flank to shatter the Waikato defence and Bell’s cross

found an unmarked Debbie Hawker in front of the goal. Bell and Smith carved through the Waikato defence on numerous other occasions but the goals did not eventuate. Fifteen minutes into the second half Waikato, equalised and five minutes from the end Vicky Allen captalised on a dreadful defensive error.

Canterbury was grateful for the spirited performance by Hawke’s Bay. The Bay marked Canterbury closely and all the goals came from penalties — two corners and a stroke by Mary Clinton and a stroke by Chris Arthur. Canterbury B continued its march towards first place in the Floyd Shield section. It beat Manawatu, 4-0, and Maia Lewis scored a hat-trick, the third successive game at the tournament that she has scored three goals in a game.

Results, page 36