Capital talent at Claireville

The cream of Capital men's hockey talent will be on display at Clareville this weekend.
Tomorrow second-placed Harbour City-Tawa will take on Dalefield in a Wellington premier division match starting at 2.40pm, while on Sunday the Capital national league squad will take on the Central Mavericks in what will be a crucial practice game for both teams. Start time there is 4pm.
That Dalefield will be the underdogs practically goes without saying.
In fact, the 2011 scorecard suggests anything but a comfortable win to the visitors would be a big surprise.They have 21 competition points while Dalefield have 6. When the two teams met in the first round Harbour City-Tawa prevailed 5-2, a result which kicked off what is currently a five-match losing trot for Dalefield.
Looks could be deceiving in this case, however. While the stats are in Harbour City-Tawa's favour Dalefield will be well aware that in most of their recent losses they have actually more than measured up to their opposition in all departments but the most crucial, goal scoring.
And if that's not frustrating enough then the fact they are certainly not short of players capable of finding the net on a regular basis makes it even more so.
There is no doubt that if Dalefield's goal scoring woes suddenly take a turn for the better tomorrow they are capable of stretching Harbour City-Tawa, and even beating them. In any case it should be a thoroughly entertaining fixture with both sides sure to play an attractive brand of hockey.
Sunday's match will be the first time two national league sides have done battle at Clareville and with a host of Black Sticks and Junior Black Sticks in the two squads it should prove a huge attraction.
The Capital line-up includes Dalefield duo Dane Lett and Jesse Workman, both of whom were members of the team which won the national league title last year.
Coach Sean Dancer has emphasised the importance of Sunday's game in deciding on the final composition of his 2011 NHL team with the selection process being made more difficult by the fact that, unlike last year, the Black Sticks players are in the mix.
Meanwhile, the domination of Wairarapa College and St Matthew's Collegiate in the premier grade of the Wellington secondary schoolgirls competition seems set to continue this year.
They finished the grading round in top equal position, after meeting twice and drawing both games, and they both kicked off the main championship in stunning style last Friday night, Wairarapa College beating Paraparaumu Girls 9-1 and St Matthew's Collegiate beating Samuel Marsden 9-0.
The news was not so good in the boys premier grade though with Wairarapa College losing 2-1 to Rongotai and Rathkeale losing 3-1 to Scots.