Dalefield on the hot line to round up a competitive team

Dalefield's slender lead in the Wellington premier division women's hockey competition will be under siege when they play Victoria University at the National Hockey Stadium this coming weekend.
Not only are Victoria University serious contenders for championship honours themselves but Dalefield will be decimated by the loss of seven players to the Wairarapa under-18 side which will be competing at a central region tournament being hosted by the Taranaki association at New Plymouth and Stratford.
An age group tourney of that stature is not recognised by the Wellington association as a reason for match deferrals so Dalefield management will be busy over the next few days ensuring they have a full complement of players on hand for their next assignment.
"Yes, I guess we will be doing a lot of ringing around to make up the numbers," Dalefield coach Kim Henson said today.
"We'll basically be missing half our squad so it's not going to be easy, is it?"
While frustrated at not being able to field a full strength side for such an important game, Henson accepts it as "just one of those things" and hasn't given up hope of Dalefield giving a strong account of themselves against a Victoria University side which is likely to be at close to full strength.
"Sometimes teams lift their games when the odds are stacked against them and that's what we will be aiming to do," he said.
Henson was pleased with the character shown by Dalefield in their 7-1 win over Harbour City-Tawa at Clareville on Saturday.
A slow start had them down 1-0 early in the piece but they struck back to lead 2-1 by halftime, thanks to goals from Rebecca Blade and Kim Harris, both of whom came off the bench and added oomph to the attack.
It was in the second spell though that Dalefield produced their best hockey with the tendancy towards individualism which had marred their first half effort being replaced by enhanced team work.
"We talked at halftime about the need to work together more to open up the defence and that's exactly what happened," coach Henson said.
Dalefield added five goals to their tally in that second half and, interestingly enough, they were all scored by different players?.Blade, Janeen Bruce, Carla Burt, Ana Playle and Justine Robertson.
Meanwhile, Wairarapa under-18s coach Richard Fenwick is expecting big things from his side at their Taranaki tourney..
With eight players back from the squad which finished fourth at the national under-18 tournament last year Wairarapa have a good nucleus of players experienced at the age group level .
Five of their current line-up- Holly Gaskin, Ditte van Vliet, Taasha Henson, Sophie Wickens and Wendy Hull - have been selected in the Capital under-21 side while Van Vliet, Henson, Wickens, Hull, Rebecca Blade, Carla Burt and Laura Crawford are part of the Dalefield team which competes in the Wellington premier division inter-club series.
Joining them for the Taranaki tourney, where matches will be played against Hawke's Bay, Wanganui and the Wellington development squad, are Lily Parker, Kelly Browne, Kylie Henderson, Laura Walsh, Pip Tocker and Katie Gibbs.