TARANAKI HOCKEY
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29 August 2005

Major Premiership 1st Round Results

New Plymouth Girls High School really put the cat amongst the pigeons on Saturday by handing Yarrows Masters their second successive defeat on the season. And it was a game that the Masters could have had sown up in the first 10 minutes when at least three opportunities went begging. NPGHS made a very nervous start, and had to endure a succession of penalty corners, before Diane McCarty broke the deadlock, dribbling around the NPGHS fullback and scoring from close range. Yarrows Masters continued to dominate much of the first half, and at the break the students would have been relieved to be only one nil down. After half-time Valissa Armstrong moved to centre half for the students, and Erin Ross slotted into inside right. This galvanised NPGHS who started to run at the Masters defence. The equaliser came from Nicole Nancarrow after a lay-off at the left hand post, but the Masters struck back soon after with a penalty corner strike by Carolyn Burgham. NPGHS then went back on the attack, and Helen Riley managed to even things up after a goal mouth scramble at a penalty corner that the Masters side were slow to clear. With only a couple of minutes left, Armstrong deliver the final touch with a fine individual goal. Receiving the ball outside the 22 she dribbled left, cut back across the Masters defence before deftly slotting the ball into the bottom left hand corner of the goal. In the other senior women's fixture a depleted NPC side was overwhelmed by Tukapa 7-3. The game was played at a fast clip, but NPC with only 10 players gradually succumbed to tiredness over the last 20 minutes and were unable to contain the Tukapa forwards. In the senior men's major premiership competition, both the Central Hockey League sides suffered losses to their local opponents. Tukapa went down 4-3 to Te Kiri in a game of two halves, while Stratford managed to eke out a 2-1 win over NPC. Te Kiri may have turned up for the game but they certainly weren't focused for much of the first half. While the opening exchanges were even, Tukapa began to take advantage of some slack marking in the Te Kiri defence, and Connor Landrigan pounced on a loose ball to open the scoring. Te Kiri struck back with a penalty stroke conversion by Les Symes, but then coughed up a soft goal to again fall behind. Despite creating a number of clear cut scoring opportunities the coastal side could not peg back the deficit until late in the half when Symes converted at a penalty corner. However, soon after half time, the complexion of the game changed. Tukapa became rattled by umpiring decisions and let their concentration wander. Rhys Armstrong drifted into the centre forward lane and received a pass from Philip Gargan. Beating two or three defenders on the dribble, he then slotted the ball past the advancing keeper. Minutes later, from a quick free hit just outside the 22, Armstrong again made the circle penetration before laying off for Neil Vince to score. Tukapa tried hard to bridge the gap, pouring their attacks down the right flank through Mark Lyes at inside right and Adam Jane. By this stage the Te Kiri defence had tightened sufficiently to deny the Tukapa forwards the sort of room they enjoyed in the first half, although Adam Jane reduced the deficit by one late in the game. In New Plymouth, Stratford and NPC played out a tight fast paced game. NPC opened the scoring 15 minutes into the game with a long probing pass from right midfield Callan Mitchell to Steven Davison on the right wing who laid off to a free Andy Gunson at the top of the circle to score. It took Stratford 10 minutes to equalise through Paul Williams from a penalty corner. Stratford took the upper hand in the half after NPC players received 4 green cards in less than 5 minutes, howver Carl Marriner was doing an outstanding job marking Stratford's strike force Grant Boyde out of the game. With the half-time score locked up at 1-1, The second half saw both teams attacking well with NPC forwards getting in behind Stratford's backs. Stratford earned a PC halfway through the second half which Grant Boyde converted from broken play. Both teams had missed opportunities with NPC being forced to play the last 4 minutes with a man down after Davison was yellow carded.

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