Hockey: Australian import ends Auckland's title effort

Hayden Shaw. Photo / Dean Purcell

One of the biggest upsets in the competition's history yesterday dashed Auckland hopes of winning the men's hockey National League.

Southern, without a point from their opening three matches, came back from 1-2 down at halftime to beat Auckland 4-3 in the opening fourth-round encounter at Porritt Park, in Christchurch.

Southern were inspired by the play of Australian import Nick Budgeon who scored twice. A day earlier, Auckland had lost ground in being held 5-5 by Wellington.

Yesterday's top-of-the-table match went against the hosts, Wellington winning 2-1.

Wellington took the lead with a penalty corner variation deflected in by Blair Hilton. Canterbury got back to 1-1 in the dying seconds of the first half with Hayden Shaw's reply.

From the only penalty corner of the second half Matt L'Hullier converted the winner and handed the hosts their first loss. They slipped back to fourth, but are still only a point behind Wellington, the only unbeaten team.

Earlier, Midlands shut-out struggling Northland 6-0 to keep alive hopes of retaining their title. Hugo Inglis and Lincoln Churchill had two each, as Andy Hayward and Malaysian striker Selvaraju Sandrakasi got the others.

They were upstaged by North Harbour, however. Bouncing back from their thrashing by the hosts 24 hours earlier, Harbour beat bottom-of-the-table Central 7-0 to stay in the dogfight for a top-two finish.

Former international Jan Peterson led the scoring for Harbour with two.

Midlands again looked the women's team to beat. They made it four in a row with their 3-2 win over Wellington who have fallen off the pace.

Clarissa Eshuis led the Midlands charge, again scoring for the Hymie Gill-coached outfit. Wellington's veteran midfielder and former Black Sticks captain Suzie Muirhead continues to defy the years again getting on the score sheet.

Defending champions North Harbour bounced back from an earlier loss to Central. They beat Southern 4-1 yesterday, after being held 1-1 at the break, to move into second place. They are three points behind Midlands and ahead of Central on goal difference.

Northland were again victims of a last-minute strike when they went down 2-1 to Central who scored in the last minute of both halves.

Kayla Sharland gave Central the lead just before the break. Jade McLeod brought Northland back into it 12 minutes into the second half only to have their hopes of a first point of the tournament dashed when Sharland struck again with seconds to play.

Today is a rest day. Principle interest tomorrow will centre on the men's and women's clashes between Midlands and Canterbury, the women's game between North Harbour and Wellington and the men's battle between Harbour and Auckland.