Central Hockey club day showcases 'incredible hockey'

Satherley Logging Women's Reserves defending a penalty corner.

Amazing weather, delicious sausages and incredible hockey - we are so thrilled with how our Central Hockey Club day went over the weekend and have all of our players, supporters and sponsors to thank for the success.

It was great to have a real community feel throughout the day with everyone contributing where they could.

Emma Johnson taking on two Te Awa defenders to score one of her three goals for the day.

The Unichem Women's Premier team was first to take the turf against Te Awa Premier bringing a final score of 5-1 including a hat-trick from Emma Johnson and player of the day going to Jessie Paget. The win was a real boost of confidence for the women and a sign that they're gelling well together as a team, headed in a positive direction.

Further improvements were seen throughout the Satherley Logging Women's Reserves game and they put up a strong defence against the travelling Akina team with no goals being scored in the first quarter. With a few great attacking opportunities for Central, led by the speedy midfielders and attackers, the game unfortunately didn't reflect how well they played and resulted in a loss. Player of the day went to Jasmine.

The Mark Boys premier men's team also faced Te Awa in a fast-paced match in the heat of the mid-afternoon. With plenty of cheering from the sideline the premier men gave the crowd an exciting match. Despite a loss, the men stepped up with plenty of pressure on their opposition, both attacking and defensive.

Goalie, Ross Fraser from the NZ Trellis Men's Reserves taking on the strong Akina attack.

The final game of the club day saw another victory for Central - the NZ Trellis men's reserves side nailing a 2-1 win against Akina, who came out with a flurry, throwing everything at the Central defence, resulting in a 1-0 lead by the first break. But the CHB side was able to steady the ship and started linking passes and threatening the Akina goal, with Greg Thompson and Bevan Jacobs scoring. Bevan also received the player of the day title.

The day brought some fantastic hockey from our whole club and we have received plenty of compliments from supporters and players regarding our performances and improvement, even from just the start of this season. We are looking forward to the remainder of this year for the club.

We would like to give a massive thank you to Countdown Waipukurau and to Waipawa Butchery for their support with our fundraising at the weekend as well as Arty Pants Studio, 3B Delights and New World Waipukurau for their generous donations to the raffle.

We still have tickets available, so please head to our Facebook page for details on how to enter or contact the club on centralhc@outlook.com

This weekend sees another home game for our Mark Boys Men's Premier team at 2.30pm at the Centralines Sports Park, Waipukurau.