Bruce plays a 'blinder' in Dalefield win

Gary Caffell
Janeen Bruce had a "blinder" as Dalefield beat Karori 5-4 in a high-scoring and entertaining Wellington premier division women's hockey fixture at Clareville on Saturday.
Bruce, who has played at representative level for Wairarapa, Wellington and Canterbury, used her experience to telling effect, firstly as striker and then at inside forward.
Her workrate, not only on attack but also on defence, was staggering and her two goals were a deserved reward for what was an outstanding individual performance.
Saturday's match certainly kept players and spectators on their toes as Dalefield and Karori basically went goal for goal until Dalefield scored the ninth of the game 23 minutes into the second half to take a 5-4 advantage.
From then on it was a case of whether the young and fast Karori side could again find the equaliser but try as they might they were unable too penetrate the Dalefield defence for a fifth time. Bruce was clearly the individual star for Dalefield but there were outstanding games too from the likes Ana-May Playle, Brooke Taylor and Georgia Burton.
But for coach Nigel Goodin it was the character and resolve shown by the entire squad which left the biggest impression.
"It was one of those games where we had to dig deep several times to keep our noses in front and we managed to do that," Goodin said. "There was a lot of tension and we handled it well."
The Dalefield men might have lost their Wellington premier division match to Northern United at Clareville on Saturday but the 5-1 scoreline represented a huge improvement on previous efforts this season.
Dalefield actually had the better of the opening exchanges and but for some indifferent decision making at important times might well have scored the first goal.
By halftime, however, Northern United who had beaten the powerful Hutt side the previous weekend had raced out to a 4-0 lead and fears were that another double figure beating for Dalefield was on the cards.
The second half though was evenly contested with both teams managing just the one goal, Dalefield's being scored by Ben Van Woerkom after a well-executed attack.
Northern United did force a number of penalty corners but some solid defence from goalkeeper Alan Brady and the nippy Willie Waitere helped keep them at bay.
Promising youngster Sam Hull had a big game for Dalefield in the halves, an injury problem didn't stop Rowan Yeo getting through a massive amount of work in the midfield and Van Woerkom was good value up front.
Dalefield coach Mark Fenwick was delighted with the spirit shown by his side and believes it augurs well for the future.
"There's been a couple of games where you could have asked whether we deserved to be playing at this level but I think this result was a lot more positive," he said. "It was a really good team effort against a quality side and now we can start thinking about getting some wins on the board."