Wairarapa teams to the fore in hockey finals

All but one of the four teams contesting the premier one grade finals of this season's Wellington secondary schools hockey competition are from Wairarapa.
In a magnificent result for local sides Wairarapa College and St Matthew's Collegiate will playoff in the girl's final at Clareville tonight while the boy's final will see Wairarapa College taking on Hutt Valley High School at the National Hockey Stadium in Wellington on Friday evening.
It was tough going for the Wairarapa trio in their semi-finals but all came through with flying colours.
In the girls division Wairarapa College beat Samuel Marsden 3-1 while St Matthew's Collegiate accounted for Wellington East 4-3.
And in the boys semis Hutt Valley High edged out Tawa 3-2 and Wairarapa College defeated Wellington College 3-2.
The Wairarapa College and St Matthews's Collegiate girl's teams have met twice in competition matches already this season with Wairarapa College winning on both occasions. They won the first game 2-1 and the second 2-0. Their match tonight will get under way at 7.15pm.
In the boys section Wairarapa College and Hutt Valley High have also met twice before with very different results. Hutt Valley won the first game 1-0 and Wairarapa College the second by a resounding 7-1.
For the St Matthew's Collegiate girls team making the final of the Wellington competition is the icing on the cake after they placed fourth at the Marie Fry trophy secondary schoolgirls tournament in Hamilton earlier in the month.
It was an effort which gave them automatic promotion into the Federation Cup tourney in 2008.
Perhaps the most memorable result for the Paul Sargeant-coached St Matthew's side at the Marie Fry tourney came in the quarter-finals when they defeated the highly-rated Palmerston North Girls High side 3-2.
Centre half Amanda Pottinger played a key role in the St Matthew's victory. She had the difficult job of marking PNGH's main ball distributor and goal scorer Katarina O'Callaghan and came up trumps, denying her dangerous opponent space and allowing St Matthew's to often pick up loose ball and quickly turn it into goal scoring opportunities.
So efficient were St Matthew's on attack that by halftime they were up 3-0, thanks to goals from two penalty corners and a field goal to Harriet Cameron.
Expecting a late surge from PNGH St Matthew's played a more defensive game in the second half and while PNGH coached by former Wairarapa rep Amanda Schaefer and ex-Black Stick Moira Senior did manage two late goals St Matthew's hung on to win 3-2.
That victory took St Matthew's into the semi-finals where they played Samuel Marsden and unfortunately the exertions of the previous day took its toll and they lost 2-1.
Several of the St Matthew's players had outstanding tournaments, including the experienced duo of captain Harriet Cameron and her deputy Stephanie Sloan, who both led by example. Goalkeeper Sarah Crofoot deserves a special mention too for her outstanding saves while Amanda Pottinger belied her youth with her astute reading of the game.
The Wairarapa College girls team can also look back on a successful national tournament, having placed a very creditable seventh at the Federation Cup event in Christchurch.
Their final game saw them involved in a playoff for seventh and eighth with the well-regarded Kamo High School side and Wairarapa College won 2-1.