TARANAKI HOCKEY
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12 September 2005

Women's Senior Championship Finals

The New Plymouth Girls High School 1st XI created some history on Saturday, taking out the Taranaki senior women's title with a 4-0 win over New Plymouth Combined. On hand to witness the event was former Mayor Claire Stewart, who as a fourth former in 1956 was a member of the last NPGHS team to achieve that feat. Claire Stewart presented the trophy to a clearly delighted Erin Ross, who had a commanding game at centre half for the school team. While not reaching the same heights as their performance against Tukapa the previous week, the school side never looked to be in any difficulty against a young NPC side. NPGHS went straight onto the attack and pressured the NPC circle. A neat pass into the circle by Shazanna Sadikeen found Helen Riley who converted to give NPGHS the lead. A` succession of penalty corners drew some good saves from the NPC keeper, and from Bridget Taylor who saved two off the line. However, the weight of possession soon told, and Valissa Armstrong dribbled into the circle before scoring with a neat reverse stick shot. Up front Riley and Nicole Nancarrow were creating plenty of space, but the students were unable to add to the score before half time. The second half saw Erin Ross take command of the middle of the field and she had a fine game both in distributing ball and breaking up NPC attacks. NPGHS were getting players ahead of the ball and made a series of circle penetrations that eventually resulted in a penalty stroke. Armstrong converted to put the game beyond NPC's reach. With 5 minutes to go a free hit from outside the circle found Kirsty Street, and her deflection found the net to make the score 4-0. For NPC Sarah Phillips showed some good touches on attack, while Deborah McBride and Kim Doran got through a huge workload trying to contain the NPGHS forwards. In the other senior women's match, the Yarrows Masters snatched a draw from the jaws of defeat. In a very even first half, both teams had periods of possession when they threatened to score, but it wasn't until the last 5 minutes of the 1st half that Alyssa Josephs scored off a rebound from the keepers pads. The Yarrows Masters were the first to put on the pressure in the second half, but Tukapa worked their way back into the game with some good passing sequences and field position. Neither side was making the most of their ball and circle penetrations were hard to come by. As the half wore on the Yarrows Masters concentrated their attack down the right flank through Judith Sewell and Diane McCarty to good effect. With only a couple of minutes to go, the Masters cut off an outlet pass, and Judith Sewell dribbled into the circle, but the tackle by the Tukapa fullback resulted in a penalty stroke. Carolyn Burgham calmly converted the stroke to give the Masters a 1-1 draw.

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