29 August 2010
HAYDEN JONES (Sunday Independent)
in Port Elizabeth
THE final of the South African Men’s Interprovincial Hockey Tournament was won by defending champions KZN Coastal Raiders on Saturday afternoon in a Port Elizabeth that lived up to its Windy City reputation.
The Raiders beat Northerns Blues of Pretoria 2-1 after the scores were 1-1 at the interval.
Raiders flicker Gareth Carr’s first half penalty corner was matched by Northerns’ set-piece ace Justin Reid-Ross’s penalty stroke – the big man in black and white again proving why he is the IPT leading goalscorer.
The match was marred by the howling wind, as play on the turf was difficult to pull off, and both teams resorted to using the overhead as the prime attacking weapon to highflying forwards.
The second half did not see the wind let up, and Reid-Ross suffered the mortification of witnessing a rocket penalty corner flick crash into the crossbar. Not more than a couple of minutes later the outstanding midfield general Timothy Drummond ensured the Raiders went 2-1 up after receiving the ball from forward Michael Botha.
This Northerns squad under coach David Viney was like a breath of fresh air and intent on winning a trophy they had not got their hands on since player/coach Chris Pio’s line-up 15 years ago.
That Northerns line-up included player/coach Gary Pio, and the national players Grant Fulton (his brother Craig was injured), Ally Fredericks, goalkeeper and captain Mark Ray, and provincial stars Lloyed Clarke and Shaun Hopkins.
The Raiders went into the final on the back foot, carrying the burden of coping without Wade Paton.
The Raiders captain suffered a recurrence of his old shoulder injury when he fell awkwardly during the tempestuous semi-final against Kaspersky Southern Gauteng, which was won in a sudden-death penalty stroke competition. Southerns were arguably robbed of a berth in the final when the superb Tebogo Lerole’s seemingly legitimate goal was disallowed.
Compounding Raiders coach Brendon Carolan’s problems was the niggling injuries carried by halfback Shanyl Balwanth and forward Sihle Ntuli, but heartening for the Durban side was the return of SA midfield fetcher Taine Paton, who missed the semi-final through suspension.
Southerns were involved in the fixture that nobody wants to be part of, the bronze medal match. Captain Miguel da Graca’s team were mediocre by their standards against 2007/08 champions Western Province, who won 1-0 through an Austin Smith penalty corner in the fifth minute.
In the battle for 5th place KZN Inland defeated Eastern Province 5-3 on penalty strokes after the full time score was locked at 4-4.
The relegation battle was won by WP Pens after they defeated Amathole 5-4 on strokes. The full time was 3-3.
