Young guns battle away at the futsal

Senior Buzz Electrics Hawke's Bay player Tai Barham tries to elude the opposition in yesterday's National Futsal League match against Auckland. Photo / Duncan Brown

It may not have been quite the result of which everyone dreamed, but a young Hawke's Bay futsal squad handled itself more than capably in getting one win and featuring a startling but unsuccessful comeback during it national league Northern Travel Series in the Pettigrew Green Arena in Taradale during the weekend.

The mainly teenage Bay squad were 4-0 down against Northern on Saturday, in the second of their four games, but struck back to make it 4-all before conceding two late goals.

It was a different story as the sides met again late yesterday morning, Hawke's Bay beating Northern 4-3, the second win in the series after a win and a loss against Waikato Bay of Plenty a fortnight earlier.

Coach Mark Cozens said that, in the fastest growing sport in New Zealand, Hawke's Bay fields one of the youngest sides, traditionally using older teenagers and young adults to the university centres in a continual cycle of rebuilding.

It's highlighted by the variation from competition rules, which state each of the 14-player squads must have at least three under 19 players.

"We take three who are over 19," he said. "The rest are all under 19."

But, once based almost exclusively on players using the indoor football game to keep in trim for the football outdoors, Hawke's Bay is now seeing players who have grown-up with the sport, some returning from university to resume playing for the region.

Among them is player and co-coach Tai Barham, now heading into his mid 20s, and having studied at Victoria University, from where he springboarded into a tournament in Brazil at the end of last year.

He ended the tournament with a hamstring injury.

Futsal occupies both the PGA and the Rodney Green Centennial Events Centre at McLean Park on Tuesday nights, and the PGA on Friday nights, with just over 100 teams in the region and about 620 registered players.

Waikato Bay of Plenty dominated the series with three wins and a draw on a weekend which went well, apart from a problem with balls jammed between seats in bleachers stacked into the western wall.

Central Football Futsal administrator Alana Waters said at one stage all four balls provided by New Zealand Football were stuck out of play.

"There no balls to be found, they were all up there," she said.