Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Finals Day 2009!
With the results from last weekend now in, the draw has been finalised for finals day. We have 5 teams competing on the day, which is a great effort. Lets see lots of people there to support our teams and watch some high quality hockey being played.
Schedule for the day:
- 10:20am: AdmorPromotionsUni vs Marist on water2
- 11:45am: FraserTech vs StorageKingUni on water1
- 11:50am: Deepak vs SuburbsPastits on water2
- 1:15pm: Speights Uni vs Te Awamutu A on water1
- 2:45pm: Te Awamutu vs CBD University women on water1
- 4:15pm: Suburbs Piako vs CBD University men on water1
- 5:45pm: Awards ceremony in the pavilion
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Zip it up and zip it out
Spooni continued their good start to the championship round with a well deserved 3-0 victory over the Tesco’s Te Awamutu Timberwolves. For those of you with Epic Montage Media Player 5.0 please click on this link http://www.varsityho … .co.nz/epicmontage8” to see highlights of the first half to the sound of Megadeath’s Tornado of Souls. For those of you deprived of EMMP 5.0 all you have missed is 5 seconds of hockey followed by Tornado of Souls live in Edinburgh 1986. Only 5 seconds of footage was needed as Te A decided to play an 11 man defense within their own 25, leading to a 0-0 half time score line.
An inspirational half time talk by William ‘not Hung’ Harding mentioned how we needed to take shots and score which was actually referring to the after party later that night but none the less worked a treat. A PC early in the second half gave Nick ‘what’s wrong with Flame/White Man’s Tim’ Trebilcock a chance to display his experimental new PC move. Noting that the goalie’s right boot was placed at the perfect angle, instead of dragging low to the right post he decided to drag it straight at the goalies right foot knowing the ball would bounce 6.23m into the air and land precisely 2.34m from the top of the circle. Positioned perfectly Trebilcock then played a shot reminiscent of a Nathan Astle cover drive to give Spooni a 1-0 lead. Spooni continued to dominate proceedings with patient passing and good movement. Trebilcock continued his fine goal scoring form with another ‘experimental’ PC move paying dividends. Spooni then extended their lead to three with some slick passing resulting in Tim ‘Indian Man’s Nick’ Ranchodbai scoring a well executed reverse. Spooni’s 3-0 win sees them move clear on top of the table as the only unbeaten side.
In other news, a humurous fines session took place with all proceeds going to Nick’s TAB account. Thanks boys.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Speights end run of draws
Taking great confidence from last weeks thrashing of T.A Development (9-0), Speights Reserve were looking to end their horrific run of draws against the top teams in the grade with a win over Fraser Tech. The midday game brought sunshine and also some bright play from Tech, who opened the scoring with a miscued reverse.
The Varsity boys rallied though, and through large amounts of territory and pressure, equalised with an unbelievable “behind the back” deflection from Tim “Radmanchild” Ranchodbhai. After that piece of magic, Speights proceeded to play some fairly average hockey, which wasn’t helped by an uncharacteristic influx of negativity from the players. Taking advantage, Tech reclaimed the lead going into half-time with a zero-angle shot from the baseline.
After a bit of soul searching and promising not to play like Old Boy’s ever again, Speights began the second stanza with some classy hockey and a far more positive attitude. Soon afterwards Chris Harding brought the scores level after some crisp passing tore the Tech defence apart. Taking inspiration from his younger sibling, Will Harding then claimed the lead for Varsity with a slightly flukey shot that went between the keeper’s legs, off a slick PC move.
From then on, the superior fitness and determination of the students allowed them to dominate the game, and the continual demolition of Tech’s defence resulted in two more goals. The first to Nick “Dances with Cougars” Trebilcock, who redeemed himself after playing some of “his worst hockey in the last three years”, and the second to Harding junior, who scored another to complete his double.
Final score 5-2, a scoreline Speights were very happy with, not least because it ended the long line of drawn games against the top teams in the grade. Special mention to former player Marshall Whitehouse who made the trip down from Auckland for the game, and provided much inspiration for the team.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Lawry Scared as Midlands scout replacement keeper
Standing in due to injury “Brendina” Jones was superb in goal, allowing only one goal through in a successful outing. The Midlands selectors were rumoured to have regretted naming their squad so early and to missed such a player. “The women’s side could do with more depth in the goalkeeping department”, the coach is reported to have said. Speights’ regular keeper, Chris Lawry, is reportedly re-doubling efforts to recover from his injury to avoid playing on the field for the remainder of the season.
It was a weekend of two halves
Friday night saw Challenge engage with PioPio is a fight for a place in the Reserve grade for the Championship round. Challenge started well playing the ball around confidently and competing well with the reserve grade team. Thankfully the first goal went to challenge, with Rudi scoring the first of his eventual two goals. The game see-sawed throughout with Challenge having the better possession and scoring a further 3 goals (Rudi, Jason, Rob). The end of the game was difficult as PioPio stretched the game resulting in big gaps in the midfield. A hard-won win capped the better the half of the weekend.
The debut match in reserve grade on Sunday was unfortunately against Speights, we would have preferred to meet them later in the round to give us some more time to adjust, though we were buoyed by the absence of a specialist keeper for Speights. The TAB was giving Challenge what looked like a generous 4 goal start in the points-start betting but that proved insufficient for those with their money on the newly promoted side. The game was competitive early until the individual skills of the Speights midfield moved into action, Challenge were unable to stop the penetration of Trebilcock, Harding and Tim on a consistent enough basis. The team were drawn into congesting the midfield on attack with many balls forced square because of a lack of deeper options. A revelation to Challenge was the level of precision shown by the Speights corner combination – described as ‘surprising even to us’ after the match by Speights players – their PCs were consistently dangerous and resulted in 3 goals (though the Trebilcock slower ball should find a better home on Galloway Park rather than Gallagher Hockey Stadium). Speight’s plan of bribing the ref in advance worked wonders as they were able to get Paul sent from the field for a very minor infraction, scoring in his absence. Working on the ‘last goal wins’ rule Rudi scored Challenge’s only goal after receiving a long ball as a result of some lazy defending by Harding Senior – unfortunately Challenge could not claim the win as Speights slotted the last goal of the match, their seventh, shortly before the full-time hooter. Final Score: Speights 7 – Challenge 1. The second half of the weekend ended much less promising than the first!
Man of the weekend must go the Nick Whelan; his workrate was astonishing on defence. He was outstanding against Speights though suffered from a lack of options for his passing game, and his cover defence was noticeably missed when he was not on the field.
Our fines master was once again absent, apparently scared of his punishment in pink. Fines for Friday were wiped as a reward for promotion, much to Ben ‘Honest I do have big hands’ Walsh’s relief. Fines on Sunday were assigned by the TAB as the difference in the score and their prediction - $3 per head + Paul’s ‘Yellow Card’. Any other fines to Jugs before next game please.