Hockey: College stay in second place

Andrew Gardiner watches Daniel Thompson during College's 1-0 over TCOB at Gonville Domain on Saturday. Photo/Stuart Munro

The heavy wet weather made it a bitter afternoon but Wanganui's women's teams were already disappointed play was not rolling their way in their Manawatu League games in Palmerston North and at home on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Tech College Old Boys men are still searching for that elusive first win after their early afternoon game with College left them with the narrowest 1-0 loss at the Gonville Turf.

By the time Collegians followed TCOB for their game with the College women at 3pm, the weather was already starting to pack in, which Collegians manager Kellie Watkin said was compounded by the fact the lights at the turf are on a timer - not switching on until 4.30pm.

"The weather opened, we couldn't get the lights to go and the game was called off 10 minutes early.

"It just got really dark and the skies opened. It was getting too dangerous."

By that time, Collegians were behind 4-1, having conceded two early goals until Maggie Symes made a reply with a post deflection to add to her season goal tally.

College got another one back right on halftime, and would add their fourth not long after the break before both teams were keen to get off. "We had opportunities that we didn't take, either," said Watkin.

"We didn't play badly, but we didn't play good enough."

College stay in second place on the table, behind High School Hockey Club.

After the TCOB women's team played some enterprising hockey despite the heavy scoreline against HSHC last week, co-coach Ian Glenny was hoping for further improvement against the Rebels in Palmerston North.

However, a 5-1 loss means the team will have to train hard and do a lot of soul-searching in the next two weeks, he said.

"The high note was we scored off a very good penalty corner through Kylie Penn."

Techno were at that stage just 2-1 down after 25 minutes.

"I thought that we would push up from that point, but we just didn't," Glenny said.

"We didn't have the cohesion of the week before, didn't finish the basics well."

Normally reliable NZ Maori goalkeeper Melissa Hylton, so often responsible for keeping her team in games, had a bad day at the office.

The afternoon rain also hit the turf hard in the second half to compound Techno's misery.

There is no club play this coming Queens Birthday weekend. However the Wanganui men's and women's representative teams will be in action at the Central Hockey League tournament at the Twin Turfs in Palmerston North.

Hockey Wanganui is actually hosting the event, with Palmerston North being the easiest location for Hawkes Bay, Taranaki, Manawatu and Wanganui to all attend.

The women's team will be predominantly the Collegians line-up.

Meanwhile, the core of the men's side will be TCOB, while a handful of former local players like Josh Rainey have also been approached to strengthen the team, coached by Langley Atkinson. Both grades will play round robin with the finals on Sunday.