Burnside I women get some revenge

Press, 11 September 1989, Page 22

Burnside I women get some revenge

Burnside I extracted some revenge for losing the Christchurch premier women’s hockey championship to Woolston earlier in the season when it won the final premier game of the season 2-0 against Woolston at Porritt Park on Saturday. Unfortunately there was nothing hinging on the game except the knowledge for Burnside I that it had beaten , the championship winner. The premier women’s competition has been haphazard this season and Saturday’s games were the conclusion of a top four competition which had no trophy at stake.

For the record Woolston and Harewood finished level on four points in the competition between the top four teams. Both had two wins and a loss in the round-robin competition. Woolston was without two key players on Saturday and Bumside I one. Woolston was without Maia Lewis from its forward line and its attack was further blunted by the need to switch Chris Arthur from inside-left to centre-half as a replacement for Isobel Thomson. The absence of Shardn Bell from the Burnside forward line tooksome .of the sting out of .that sidfe’S attack, but '■ Jane Earnshaw, Sonia Dann and Kate Trolove made the difference between the two sides. Woolston looked more

vulnerable on defence especially when Burnside made quick switches of play, but both Burnside goals came from penaltycorners rather than field play. The goals were identical penalty-corner layoffs, Mary Clinton hitting the ball with half the usual force wide of the net and Trolove guiding the ball back on course from a few metres wide of the goal. The pair had attempted the same variation for Canterbury in the final of the national women’s tournament at Porritt Park a week earlier and Trolove failed to connect with the ball, but it worked perfectly on Saturday. Trolove miSsed a golden opportunity to score a hat-trick. Mid-way through the first half, before she scored her first goal, Clinton fired a pass from the Burnside circle edge and found Trolove 15m inside the Woolston half. Trolove had a straight run to the Woolston circle, ran around Sharon Amos in goal, but her shot was 15cm off line and struck the side of the goal. .; Clinton, Lorraine Rouse and kieren . O’Grady worked hard in the Bumside defence to maintain . the lead once, it was achieved, and Dann and Earnshaw were eager workers on attack. ■ Arthur did a commendWble job at centre-half for

Woolston and Sue Davis and Chris Berry were also sound defenders. Sue Duggan set up play well from inside-right but she and her fellow forwards found the Burnside defence difficult to penetrate. Harewood completed a good season by beating Selwyn I 3-1 and finishing equal on points, but second on goal average to Woolston. Both Harewood and Selwyn initiated some good passing moves with play regularly sweeping from one end of the field to the other. Harewood, however, deserved its success because its passing was more accurate in the critical attacking area' near the Selwyn circle. Louise Good scored the first goal after a good passing move and Ann Hall gave Harewood a two-goal buffer early in the second-half but Selwyn struck back when Nicky Sherriff scored from a penalty-corner 10 minutes' from fulltime. That setback brought an. additional effort from Harewood and .after a couple of close calls Maree Flannery scored two minutes from the end to secure the match for Harewood. '

It was an encouraging performance by Harewood which plays Burnside I in two weeks for a place in the semi-finals of the Adidas national interclub knockout... competir ?