Several rehearsals for Poverty Bay club hockey finals day in penultimate weekend

Gisborne Boys' High First XI scoring supremo Ollie Egan will look to add to his Poverty Bay men's club hockey tally against Waituhi on Friday might. He is closing in on 40 goals for the season. Photo / Mai Gooch

Waituhi face the prospect of an onslaught from a Gisborne Boys’ High School First XI still hurting from failing to make the Poverty Bay Premier men’s club hockey grand final.

The students are sure to be determined to produce a strong performance on the Hain Farming Turf at Harry Barker Reserve in a Friday-night game.

They were said to be “pretty gutted” to have missed out on getting to the final following their 4-2 loss to Lytton Paikea Sports Club LOB Traktion last weekend.

This weekend’s four men’s and women’s matches will be the last ahead of finals day on August 23.

The students and Waituhi face off at 6.30pm on Friday and Poverty Bay Hockey chairman Kohere Tupara expects them to bounce back from the Traktion defeat.

“I believe they will be too strong for their opposition,” he said.

The teams are set to meet again in the playoff for third on finals Saturday, before Boys’ High head to Carterton for their winter week schools tournament.

Defending men’s champions Laidlaw YMP face LPSC Resene Masters at 12.30pm on Saturday.

“YMP will use this game to fine-tune themselves ahead of their premier final against Traktion,” Tupara said.

“The Masters, on the other hand, will want to end their season with a strong effort.”

PGG Wrightson Ngatapa and GMC Green meet at 2pm in a rehearsal for the women’s premier grand final.

“I am excited to see how this pans out,” Tupara said. “To see whether or not Ngatapa can improve on their previous games against the Green Machine [4-0 and 5-0 wins to GMC].”

The match between LPSC Emerre and Hathaway Insurance Paikea and GMC Kowhai from 3.30pm will be yet another preview of a finals encounter.

They will meet again the following week in the “B Grade” final for women.

“Paikea will go in as favourites,” Tupara said. “But both teams will use this game to find out more about their respective strengths and weaknesses.”