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Acacia named in state PSSA side
Friday, 18 June 2010 13:01

COURTESY MANNING RIVER TIMES

FROM freezing conditions at Lithgow to the Gold Coast. That's the journey for Oxley Island Public School student Acacia Cann, who will represent NSW in the Australian Primary School Sports (PSSA) hockey championships in August.

Acacia gained a place after playing strongly for Hunter in the State titles held at Lithgow.

Hunter and Western were declared joint premiers after the sides played a gripping 1-1 draw in the final.

Acacia is the Manning River Times-Iguana Sportstar of the Week, earning a $50 open order at Iguana.

The NSW team will gather in Sydney before heading to the Gold Coast. Acacia played on the wing for Hunter and hopes to get a run in that position during the national championships.

She hopes the weather will be kinder on the Gold Coast than at Lithgow, where fog blanketed fields for early games while arctic-like temperatures and sleet made it tough for players and spectators.

Acacia rated the final as the hardest game of the two day championship. Western, Hunter's opponents, went into the match undefeated and had scored a 3-0 win over Hunter during a round game. However, Hunter were first on the board in the decider before Western levelled just before halftime.

The deadlock wasn't broken during a sea-sawing second section.

Acacia said she wasn't expecting to make the State team but is now looking forward to the national championship.

She was a member of the Hunter side last year that finished in fifth place at State.

Acacia plays for Sharks in the Manning junior and senior competitions, turning out for the under 13s, 15s and division three women.

Acacia started playing hockey about five years ago, starting with her good friend, Meg Ferguson.

However, she doesn't confine herself to the hockey field.

She will run in the State cross country at Eastern Creek on July 25 after finishing fourth in her age division at the regionals held recently at Maitland.

The 12-year-old is also a member of Taree Old Bar's junior surf club while she played touch football last summer.

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Souths stand between Rams and minor title
Thursday, 17 June 2010 11:33

COURTESY MAITLAND MERCURY

Maitland Rams coach Nathan Baker is under no illusions how important his team’s clash with Souths is on Sunday.

Baker believes a loss for the Rams at Newcastle Hockey Centre will bring their run at a minor premiership grinding to a halt.

“We really need to win this one to keep in touch with Norths who are at the top of the table,” he said.

“A loss would mean Norths have a four or five point buffer on us, which will be really hard to peg back in the third round.”

The Rams are expected to be at full strength with everyone except the Urquhart brothers, Pete and Ben, well rested from a week off.

The Urquharts will come up against four of their Newcastle teammates, fresh from a State Championship victory, including Newcastle and Souths captain coach Simon Vimpani.

The last time the two teams met, the Rams broke an eight-year losing streak with a 4-3 win and will be keen to start their own winning streak against their fiercest rivals.

The Rams take on Souths at Newcastle Hockey Centre at noon on Sunday.

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Brothers help break 27 year state hoodoo
Thursday, 17 June 2010 11:31

COURTESY MAITLAND MERCURY

Maitland Rams brothers Peter and Ben Urquhart helped Newcastle break a 27-year hoodoo at the state championships on the long weekend.

Newcastle fought back from 2-0 down to beat Illawarra 3-2 in the Division One Open State Championship final at Moorebank on Monday.

Norths player Alan Charlton put Newcastle back into the match on the stroke of half-time through a penalty corner but following the break the Urquhart brothers took over.

In the 50th minute of the match Peter flicked a pass to Ben, who rammed home an equalising goal.

With the scores locked at 2-all poor handling from Newcastle gifted possession and an open net to the Illawarra players who failed to take advantage of the simple chance.

The narrow miss galvanised Newcastle and after a penalty corner, in which both Ben and Peter handled the puck, Jaden Ekert provided the killer blow.

Newcastle were forced to hang on for two penalty corners after the siren before clinching victory.

It wasn’t the first time Newcastle was forced to fight back against Illawarra.

In the opening pool game Newcastle trailed 3-1 before they forced a 4-all draw.

Following that they came back to beat Grafton 4-3 before thrashing Tamworth 7-1 and easily getting past Sydney 5-1 in the semi-final.

Peter said the difference between the 2010 team and previous squads he’d been involved with came down to youth and exuberance.

“We had a lot of young players in key positions,” he said.

“Jordan Willot (17), Mitchell Allen-Waters (18), Liam Alexander (19) and Ben (20) all played strongly for us and gave us a lot of speed.

“The core of the team is under the 25-year mark, which is much younger than past years.”

Peter and Ben said the win ranked among their greatest achievements in hockey.

“It’s my first state championship in any age including juniors,” Ben said.

“I’ve won one before with Newcastle but it was in division two,” Peter said.

“It was really special to win it with Benny and have my parents there watching too.”

Peter said the players were inspired by team manager David Willot who played the year after Newcastle last won the state championship in 1983.

“It really fired us up when he told us how he had tried his whole career to win one and we were on the cusp of it,” he said.

“I think it meant a lot for him to be apart of it.”

The brothers indicated nothing would stop them from donning the red and blue of Newcastle again next year in a bid to defend their title.

The Urquhart brothers will have to come up against four of their Newcastle teammates on Sunday when the Rams take on Souths.

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Men stumble at last hurdle
Tuesday, 15 June 2010 10:17

COURTESY CENTRAL COAST EXPRESS ADVOCATE

CENTRAL Coast’s winning run in the NSW open men’s hockey championships came to an end in Monday’s division two final.

The coast side blitzed its opening matches, scoring 14 goals and conceding just three, in four consecutive wins on Saturday and Sunday.

But the dream run didn’t continue in the decider against Macarthur, with the Central Coast suffering a 3-1 loss.

Central Coast coach Michael Banks was pleased with his side’s results after the players had initially been happy to make the semi-finals.

“We had to reassess our goals after our first game,” Banks said of the coast’s opening 3-1 win over Wagga Wagga.

The final saw the coast come up against an equally in-form Macarthur and Banks said his side didn’t take its chances after the scores were level at 1-1 at the break.

“We played them off the park in the second half but couldn’t convert,” he said.

Central Coast’s Daniel Carter was named in the NSW Country side afterwards.

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Wingham Junior hockey Results
Saturday, 12 June 2010 13:52

COURTESY WINGHAM CHRONICLE

Under 9s

THE poor conditions meant that some players did not come so it was two depleted Wingham teams who took on each other on the weekend. The younger Wisely's team of Cameron Brown, Eliza Baker, Josephine Manks and Ellie Smith fought hard all game using their passing skills to try to get the ball up the field but the older Amcal team proved too strong on the day. Mia Smith, Gabe Poole, Madeline Betts, Dimity Bartlett and Georgie Moss all played well with each getting the opportunity to score a goal.

Under 15's

IT wasn't raining but it was still pretty cold and damp at 8am on Saturday when the Wingham Beef Exports under 15s took on Chatham.

The forwards took an early attack with Ellie Stilwell using some impressive stick work to get the ball past the Chatham players.

Ella Hartcher and Courtney Morris were on hand to take her passes and Wingham were rewarded with a goal when Emily Luckie and Maddie Hopkins combined in the circle and allowed Emily to score. Chloe Hogno and Stephanie Harrison on the wings were unlucky to add to the scoreline before half time. They were in the right place but were unable to connect stick to ball.

The score was increased early in the second half when Emily Luckie again found the back of the net. Chatham however were not giving up easy and a change of positioning put them on the attack. The steady hands of fullbacks Kate Nielsen and Chloe Becker, and halves Kate Cortaville-Smith and Stephanie Green, kept the Chatham players away from the goals and some outstanding sliding saves by goalie Olivia Mudie meant that Chatham was unable to score until a penalty corner allowed them to shoot the ball into the goal. The final score was 3 - 1 with Ellie Stilwell scoring the final goal near full time

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SOUTHS JUNIORS SHOW THEIR WORTH
Monday, 14 June 2010 05:12

USER SUBMITTED CONTENT

South Junior girls have certainly proven their ability in the past couple of week with their inclusion in State teams and squads.We have already noted the outstanding feats of Estelle Hughes and Mirah Williams who have been included in the NSW Under 15 squad for a High Performance Camp where they will be assessed for a place in the state team.

Now we can add the names of Yasmin Skene and Jasmine Etheridge to the list of high achievers as both girls were selected in the NSW Primary School team for the National Schools Championship to be held on the Gold Coast in August.Both girls are members of  South’s 2 which plays in the AR competitionThis will be Yasmin’s second year in the NSW team.The girls were selected after their outstanding performances for the Hunter regional side at the State championships in Lithgow last week.

The unheralded Hunter team played outstanding hockey breaking a 22 year drought by becoming joint premiers with the strong Western Region side. Hunter went through the carnival only to be defeated once by Western in an earlier round.Other South’s girls to excel for the Hunter were Abbey Morris, Kendall Steel and Katie Duck.We should also mention to the outstanding efforts of Rachel Ward from Central Wests and Katie Schimann from the Tigers Club who had a strong carnival with some outstanding defence displayed in the semi- final and final.

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Gearing up for hockey carnival
Saturday, 12 June 2010 13:44

COURTESY GLOUCESTER ADVOCATE

Gloucester's annual Allan Atkins Memorial Hockey carnival is being held this Sunday, June 13.

The first game is to start at around 8.30am at Cook Park.

Teams from Newcastle and Taree will be up against a Gloucester side, with $3000 in prizemoney on offer.

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