Dalefield in shock win over champs

Dalefield caused a stunning upset in the Wellington premier division women's hockey competition on Saturday, beating defending champions Hutt 3-0 in their match played at Clareville.
It wasn't so much the size of victory which made this a standout performance from the mainly young and inexperienced Dalefield side but because they refused to be intimidated by the physical approach and verbal provocation of their opposition.
"We knew it would be a ugly game and we were prepared for it," Dalefield coach Rochelle Retter said. "They (Hutt) don't hold anything back and it's easy to become distracted but we stuck to our guns all the way through.It was a huge learning curve for some of the younger girls and they coped really well."
It was, in fact, one of the youngsters in Tara Hall who provided Dalefield with the only goal of the first half while the other two came from the stick of one of the more seasoned campaigners in Karen James in the second spell.
James and another experienced performer in Janeen Bruce were both grand value for Dalefield on attack where their stability was an obvious asset while Ana May-Playle had a typically high workrate at centre half.
For goalkeeper Lauren Hartnell this was always going to be a baptism of fire and she came through with flying colours. She made several splendid saves, especially in the second half, with one Hutt shot actually deflecting off her helmet.
"She told me she didn't see that one&she; had her eyes closed," Retter quipped.
The Dalefield men's team also came close to a memorable win on Saturday, bouncing back from a 12-0 defeat by defending Wellington premier division one champions Indians seven days earlier to run last year's beaten finalists Northern United close, losing by just 5-4.
It was an effort which brought mixed emotions for coach Mark Fenwick who admits to having thoughts of an upset victory when his team raced out to a 2-0 lead inside the first 20 minutes of play.
By halftime, however, Northern United had recovered to hold a 3-2 advantage and, try as they might, Dalefield were unable to close that gap, both teams scoring two goals in the second spell.
Fenwick was understandably delighted Dalefield had lifted their effort several notches from the previous weekend with their ability to keep possession for long periods representing a major improvement ."We had talked a lot about the need to protect the ball and not give it up easily and we did well in that respect," Fenwick said.
National age group representative Shane Hodgkiss scored two of the Dalefield goals in what was only his second appearance at premier division level and his positional play was always impressive.Jesse Workman was a lively figure up front too and also got himself on the scoresheet as did skipper Mark Scully.Standouts on defence were Greg Mason and Dane Lett.