TARANAKI HOCKEY
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22 August 2005

MINOR PREMIERSHIP FINALS

The minor premiership finals in the Taranaki senior hockey championship were decided over the weekend, with Tukapa surprising the Yarrows Masters in the women's final on Saturday, and Stratford just getting home over Te Kiri in a cracker of a game on Sunday. The Yarrows Masters were unbeaten up until Saturday, but they brought their B game to the final while Tukapa brought their A game, and took the minor premiership final 2-0. Both sides started well, with the Yarrows Masters the first to put pressure on the opposition defensive circle. But after 7 minutes, in their first real foray into the Masters 25, Tukapa created a scoring opportunity that Lara Bertie was on hand to convert, giving Tukapa the lead 1-0. The Masters side swung back onto attack forcing a series of penalty corners that they were unable to convert. Towards the middle of the half came one of those pivotal moments that swing matches. In a scramble in the Tukapa circle the ball seemed destined for the net, but Holly Fuglistaller dived behind the keeper and swept the ball off the line to safety. Tukapa settled into a short passing game to open up the Masters midfield before throwing the long pass wide to their frontrunners. The Masters team were unable to maintain possession long enough to get adequate control of the midfield, and wasted a lot of ball with ill-directed passing. The second half saw the Masters side trying desperately to create some scoring opportunities, while Tukapa continued to manage possession better and create pressure on the Masters defence. Jenny Algar got through a ton of work in the Masers midfield, but wasn't able to find players in sufficient space. The Tukapa defence was built around the covering and tackling skills of Zoe Osborne, who had a magnificent game, breaking up the Masters attacks and then releasing players with well timed and weighted passes. Mid way through the second half, Lara Bertie again capitalised on poor defensive work in the Masters circle, and Tukapa had the crucial two goal advantage. The balance of the half was evenly fought, but Tukapa held out to deservedly win the match. The men's final was full of drama and was well worthy of a final. After 10 minutes you could have been forgiven for thinking that Stratford would run away with the game. Te Kiri were guilty defensively of giving Grant Boyde too much room, and he made them pay with two fine field goals. Te Kiri needed to recover from their slow start, and did so, initially through tightening their marking and then by creating some opportunities of their own. Midway through he first half, Leslie Symes converted from a penalty corner to reduce the deficit to 2-1, and Te Kiri should have levelled the scores just before the half when Rhys Armstrong failed to connect properly with a cross at the right hand post. This was a game of threw willing, and the umpires were not averse to issuing cards,. particularly to control some of the tackling. Gil Sandford found himself cooling his heels in the first half, while Cameron Ardern Lloyd Morgan and Grant Boyde all spent short periods as spectators. The second half was something of a Te Kiri revival as they piled on the pressure, running at the Stratford defence. Stratford concentrated on maintaining width in their attacks, favouring the right hand side of the field. Lloyd Morgan was getting through a power of work defensively for Te Kiri and also managed to promote himself on attack at times showing up in the midfield. With about 20 minutes to go Te Kiri forced a penalty corner and a quick transfer left to Morgan saw his powerful sweep shot find the right hand corner of the goal. With the scores level, both teams threw themselves into attack. Stratford looked to build theirs down the right hand side, but the pressure was telling on some of their younger players whose trapping skills started to wilt. Te Kiri scrambled well in defence and were saved at least once by the goal post. Paul Williams saw a crucial penalty corner opportunity go wide with only minutes to go, and Te Kiri concentrated on long clearances to the other end of the pitch to relieve pressure. With only 2 minutes to go, Grant Boyde managed to find a pocket of space on the edge of the Te Kiri circle, his powerful reverse stick inside edge shot whistled past the Te Kiri keepers head into the top of the goal. It was a spectacular strike to see Stratford home.

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