Honours shared in top guns thriller

LOB V YMP: Lytton Old Boys B player Dave Lepper is confronted by YMP A’s Heath Tupara in Poverty Bay senior men’s hockey. Tupara scored twice in a 6-0 win on the LJ Hooker Turf. Picture by Paul Rickard

HOCKEY

A draw between defending women’s champions YMP A and arch-rivals GMC Green in the opening game of the Poverty Bay A-Grade division highlighted Poverty Bay senior hockey fixtures at the weekend.

YMP A had been dominant over the season so far — eight wins from eight games — but the Friday night 1-all draw with the Green Machine has added a new dimension following the split of the competition into A and B grades.

“It was great for Green to come through and finish with a draw,” said hockey commentator Tony Scragg. “It would be anyone’s guess who will win next time they play.

“The Green Machine created quite a few additional scoring opportunities, and a win was on the cards,” Scragg said.

Maia Rickard scored for GMC and Shannon Williams for YMP.

A 2-1 A-Grade win to Ben Holden Fencing Ngatapa against JNL Paikea was another standout result. It lived up to expectations it would be the match of the day on Saturday.

“Ngatapa scored the opening goal just before halftime and leading up to that it was a very close match,” said Scragg.

“They scored again midway through the second half but Paikea dominated the final 10 minutes, scoring their goal just on the final hooter. Paikea have improved heaps and will be a team to watch in the remaining A-Grade women’s games.”

The B-Grade feature clash was between YMP B and GMC Gold — the B outfit winning 2-nil.

“Well done YMP B,” said Scragg. “It was certainly a good way for them to start the new round.”

Other results went the way of form teams.

Lytton Old Boys A spread the goals around, with six scorers in their 7-2 victory over YMP B in the senior men’s competition.

Thirty seconds into the second half it was only 2-1 to Lytton but then a flurry of goals took it completely away from YMP,” said Scragg,

“The fitness levels of the Lytton players told the story and they scored some really nice goals.”

THC rattled the back of the net 15 times against LOB Masters, but to their credit the Masters whacked in three of their own.

“It was a vastly different result to our 29-nil thumping last season,” said Scragg, who scored one of the Masters goals.

“THC have a really good short-passing game that other teams find difficult to counter.”

GMC Kowhai scored an 11-2 win over Te Aowera in the women’s B-Grade, with Megan Allen banging in five goals for Kowhai and teammate Sacha Burns grabbing a hat-trick.

“TA only had eight players for the game and I feel they went really well,” Scragg said. “It was great to see them score twice themselves.

“As far as Kowhai are concerned, they are showing they are the leading team at this stage in the women’s B-Grade.”