HOCKEY - Keeper controversy mars much-anticipated match

Maungakaramea scores coveted win, but late decision to use unapproved player 'unsettles' Old Girls
Controversy surrounded the highly anticipated match between Maungakaramea and Old Girls on Saturday.
Although Maungakaramea won a lively match 2-0, the result will probably go down as a victory by default to Old Girls, after Maungakaramea played United-Kawakawa's Lorna Drake in goal for the match.
Twice during the week Maungakaramea approached the club council to get permission to play Drake in goal, but on both occasions they were refused.
"I don't think there's any chance we're going to get those points, but the way we're looking at it is that we lost points last year because we didn't fill the card in right and we still finished in the top two of the competition," Maungakaramea's captain Tania Crene said.
Crene said the team will approach the Northland Hockey Board with an appeal, but yesterday they weren't holding out much hope for a positive outcome.
"We went out there and outplayed them from the outset and if we don't get the points then at least we had the satisfaction of rectifying our big defeat of five weeks ago with the best game we've played all season," Crene said.
Maungakaramea's regular keeper couldn't play because of a family bereavement and the second team's keeper was away. The third team's keeper, who plays hockey socially, simply refused to play in the premier grade - leaving Crene and company little choice but to look for another keeper.
Monica Hudson scored both goals for Maungakaramea in the match but Old Girls manager Tania Baker said the whole controversy was a distraction for her players.
"It definitely was hard for them to concentrate, we knew they had been refused permission to use Lorna, who was the form keeper in the competition last season before the match, and to see them ignore that was quite unsettling," she said.
The other match in the premier league was drawn 2-2 between Whangarei Girls High School and Hikurangi. Defaults and missing keepers were a recurring theme in the premier grade on Saturday.
Bream Bay's missing goalkeeper Graeme Helleur had his team and about half the spectators looking around for him, but he was nowhere to be found, causing Bream Bay to default the match.
While not the happiest of men on Saturday with Helleur absent, Bream Bay coach Graeme Cotton's mood had improved considerably by the following day.
"He simply got his time mixed up and arrived there about an hour and half late," Cotton said.
"It was disappointing for us, because if we knew he wasn't going to turn up we would have organised another keeper to stand in ... it was just one of those things," he said.
Without a specialist keeper, the side had little choice but to default. Maungakaramea lent Bream Bay their keeper, Ashley Holwell, for a friendly match between the two sides and played without a keeper themselves.
In the other match, Mangapai regained their momentum in the competition after last weekend's loss to Maungakaramea with a big 4-1 win over Springfield.
Mangapai seemed a different side this week and outplayed Springfield in most facets of the game. They had many more scoring opportunities and might have won by more.
Two goals to Dean Gibson and one each to Mark Thorne and Cameron Hellier put the game beyond Springfield, whose scorer was James Watane.