Wairarapa top hope at hockey champs

Wairarapa should be amongst the front runners at the national division one women's hockey championships to be played at the National Hockey Stadium in Wellington next week.
Coach Andy Wilson acknowledges the opposition will be strong, but believes that if Wairarapa play to their potential they can be in contention for a finals berth.
"It's all about being consistent, you need to start well and keep the momentum going all the way through," Wilson said. "You can't afford one good day and then one bad day. Any ground lost early will be hard to pick up."
The late withdrawal of New Zealand age group representative Elizabeth Perry is a blow to Wairarapa, but Wilson fully supports her decision to concentrate on her national league commitments with the Wellington senior side.
"She has a very busy schedule over the next weeks and something had to go," he said. "And unfortunately it had to be us."
The bulk of the Wairarapa side were members of the Dalefield team, which finished fourth in this season's Wellington premier division interclub series, after winning it the year before.
The exceptions are "imports" Kate Harrington from Otago and Karen James from Wellington, both of whom are ex-Wairarapa reps, Wairarapa College duo Sophie Wickens and Kelly Browne and Red Star club player Anita Williamson.
Wilson said the powerful Dalefield influence should be a big plus in terms of combinations, and that it would also make it easier to formulate tactics with which the players were comfortable.
Preliminary round play will be staged under a round robin system with Wairarapa facing Southland Combined on Monday and Nelson on Tuesday.
Those are games which Wairarapa will be warmly favoured to win, but Wilson is taking nothing for granted.
He knows that national tournaments are littered with upset results, with the strength of some teams changing dramatically from season to season.
"It's dangerous to start thinking you will win any game??you can't write anybody off," he said.
Logic does say though that Wednesday will be the make or break day for Wairarapa in their bid for a finals berth, an honour which will fall to the two top teams at the end of robin play.
Then they will play Hawke's Bay and Canterbury, two of the most powerful provinces in women's hockey over a long number of years, and at least one win will probably be required there to keep their title aspirations alive.
Wanganui will provide the opposition for Wairarapa on Thursday and they will complete the round robin by squaring off against arch rivals Wellington on Friday. And it should be a nail-biter judging by the 0-0 draw they had when they met in a "friendly" last weekend.
The full Wairarapa squad is: Kate Harrington, Alice Davies, Laura Crawford, Sophie Wickens, Jesse Davies, Wendy Hull, Taasha Henson, Kelly Browne,Olivia Pearce, Karen James, Janeen Bruce, Anita Williamson, Courtney McGregor, Ana Playle, Karla Burt.