Hockey: Dannevirke senior men make semifinal

The Dannevirke Sports Club Senior Men's hockey team after their final pool game.

Dannevirke Sports Club Senior Hockey men are peaking nicely as their season comes to its final stages.

Playing in the Division Three Manawatu competition, the team clinched a place in the semifinals by beating Massey 1-0 at the Massey turf on Friday, September 18.

Russell Heald on attack.

The grade started with 14 teams after Covid restrictions were lifted at the start of June and split into a top six and bottom eight a month ago.

Dannevirke were in the top six and the win on Friday has put them into top four with the prospect of playing top side Levin on Saturday.Although Levin defeated them 3-1 in pool play, as did Massey, Dannevirke can take heart from beating them on Friday. Two weeks earlier they hammered another top four team 4-1.

Peter Patel says the team is coming together with the experience of playing 15 games after starting the season with a lot of new players, some of whom were young and not used to this level of hockey.

Now they are a force to be reckoned with and the next games will be interesting.