Dalefield fighting to retain title

Defending Wellington premier division women's hockey champions Dalefield aren't about to give up their title without a fight.
That was the message emanating from their impressive 5-4 win over star-studded Victoria University at Clareville on Saturday.
Spearheaded by Black Stick goal scoring supremo Suzie Muirhead and including a German international in their line-up, University had to start as favourites.
And when the visitors scored three goals in an eight-minute period in the first half to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead at halftime the omens did not look good for the home side.
However, the second spell was an entirely different story with a fired-up Dalefield calling the tune in most departments.
They levelled up at 3-3 and then after going 3-4 down they scored the last two goals of the game to snare a thoroughly deserved win.
Dalefield coach Andy Wilson is never one to offer praise lightly, but he was quick to pay a tribute to his side for what he labelled a "true team effort."
Wilson said University's first half comeback had been sparked by them making some positional changes to which Dalefield took time to adapt.
"We actually had the better of the opening exchanges but when they made those changes we struggled to close them down and they capitalised," he said.
Wilson said the necessity to employ a one-on-one marking system was stressed during the halftime break with the emphasis being on keeping Muirhead, in particular, under wraps.
"A lot of University's play revolves around her and we knew that if we could keep her quiet they would have problems breaking our defence," Wilson said.
Given the difficult job of nullifying Muirhead's influence in the crucial last quarter was Katherine Wyatt, and she did a magnificent job. Not only that, she also scored the goal which gave Dalefield their winning 5-4 advantage about five minutes from the game'e end.
Liz Perry, who was always a danger on attack, scored a hat-trick for Dalefield with Ana Playle being their other scorer.
Wilson said Saturday's victory was a huge confidence booster to Dalefield's bid to successfully defend their premier division crown.
"Beating University no matter who is in their side is always a major plus but when they have their internationals there it's even better," he said.
The Dalefield men's team also showed grit and determination in their 3-3 draw with Harbour City-Tawa, who are two places above them on the competition table.
Harbour City-Tawa led 2-1 at halftime and would have fancied their chances of success when they went out to a 3-1 advantage in the second half.
However, it was Dalefield who finished the stronger of the two teams and they were a little unfortunate not to add more than just two goals to their tally.
"We had two or three other really good scoring chances late in the game which we didn't take so we certainly could have won it," Dalefield coach Laurie Juno said. "But they (Harbour City-Tawa) are a strong side so a draw wasn't a bad result."
Juno was, however, pleased with the resolve shown by Dalefield although he conceded that the match as a whole would best be described as "scrappy".
"Neither side were as organised as they could have been, it was bit disjointed at times," he said.
Outstanding for Dalefield was defender Toby White and their goal scorers were White, Geoff Ewington and Michael Hicks.