Women's co-coach happy with third

PLACE-GETTERS: The Wanganui senior women's representative hockey side finished third of five at the Central Hockey League tournament in Palmerston North last weekend.PHOTO/SUPPLIED

WANGANUI teams were far from disgraced in the Central Hockey League tournament in Palmerston North last weekend, where the women fared better than their male counterparts.

The senior women's representative side finished third of the five teams competing, while the senior men ended up fourth of four after winning just one match during round-robin play.

Manawatu beat Taranaki 2-1 in the men's final to take the title and, ironically, the tournament runners-up were the only side Wanganui beat. The Wanganui lads defeated Taranaki 3-2 before going down 4-0 to both Manawatu and Hawke's Bay. In the play-off for third and fourth Wanganui lost narrowly 3-2 to Hawke's Bay.

The women ended the tournament third, behind Horowhenua and Manawatu, after winning two and losing two. Tournament winners Horowhenua, with Black Sticks player Cat Pollock in their line-up, beat the Wanganui girls 2-0, while HMI Manawatu handed them a 6-1 whipping. Earlier in the weekend Wanganui had taken the scalps of Taranaki (2-0) and Hawkes Bay (2-1).

Men's coach Langley Atkinson said with such a young side that included a couple of 15-year-olds it was always going to be an uphill battle given the quality of the opposition.

"That's no excuse and in fact, individually, the boys played pretty well. We were just guilty of leaking a few goals," Atkinson said.

"To be fair, the quality of teams we were playing was right up there."

Atkinson said the four named in the wider Central Hockey League Under-18 squad to play at the nationals next month - Lee Moir, Joseph Redpath, Ryan Gray and Ben Pilet - played well, although the return of his sons Martin and Reid helped Wanganui stay in touch.

Martin Atkinson is now based in Auckland and the 2013 Junior Black Sticks wider squad member was recently named in Sport NZ's latest Pathway to Podium (P2P) programme, designed to help young athletes reach the elite level.

"To be fair, Martin was probably head and shoulders above the others, but you would expect that with the accolades he has been given."

Mark Lyes, who co-coached the women with Jan Dixon, said he was happy with the team's performance.

"Definitely, the girls played well and those two sides that finished ahead of us were full of age group regional and national representative players. There were only two goals in it against eventual winners Horowhenua and we had our chances to score," Lyes said.

Lyes singled out goalkeeper Emelia Stanley, Sarah Reid and Emma Rainey, who has been named in the CHL Under-18 side to play at the nationals, for special mention.