A contingent of eight players from Port City Hockey Club formed part of the Port Macquarie Hastings Hockey Association’s State Championship-winning team last weekend. The team competed in the annual NSW Hockey Over 40s State Championships which were this year held at the Macarthur Hockey Complex in the outer south-western Sydney suburb of Narellan.
The team finished victorious in the C Division, after playing six matches over a three-day tournament. Teams from all over the State were present, including teams from as far away as Parkes, Dubbo, Wagga Wagga and the Far North Coast.
Team captain and Port City Club president Ross Charlton commented that it was great to see that Port City Hockey Club was providing a majority of players to representative teams.
He said it was also great to see all the other clubs in town forming part of the team to ensure that we send the best and strongest possible teams away to these tournaments.
The combined effort of all the towns’ hockey clubs saw the team beat two local Macarthur teams, Coffs Harbour and hockey power house, Newcastle.
The team’s defenders and goal keeper were only troubled a handful of times and only one goal slipped by them over the entire tournament.
The team’s strikers and attackers, including Port City stars Geoff Mathews, Brett Thurgate, Wayne Craig, Ian Anquetil and Ross Charlton, amassed more than 25 goals over the three-day event.
The grand final saw our team take on the one of the Macarthur teams that they had beaten through the regular round matches.
After a lapse in concentration from the Port boys, Macarthur earned a penalty corner in the first few minutes, with the shot narrowly missing the goal. This was the kick-start that the team needed and, from that point on, the goalkeeper and defenders were hardly troubled for the rest of the final.
Regular Port City A Grade players Ian Anquetil, Geoff Mathews and Al Forrester combined well in the halves and inside forward positions in all matches to provide a solid grounding for the team’s forwards to put goals into the back of the net.
Club President Ross Charlton came away from the tournament with a bag full and former club Vice President Brett Thurgate scored the last goal in the final to put the tournament out of reach for the Macarthur team.
After such a resounding win, the team will now be promoted to the B Division in next year’s competition — believed to be held in Newcastle.
The key to making headway in this division is to try and keep most of this year’s wining team together and to work on the combinations formed with the other players from the other teams in our local association.
Port City Hockey Club extends its congratulations to; Port City stars Geoff Mathews, Ian Anquetil, Ross Charlton, Brett Thurgate, Wayne Craig, Al Forrester, Steve Tricket, Andrew McManus (Goal Keeper) who were joined by Stewart Dowrick, Kevin Lewis, Derek Arnberger, Phil Chaplin, Pete Limbert and Ashley Grummitt from the other clubs in the association.
All players will be back in action this weekend in the local competition.
For more information, results and photos, find us on face book or log on to www.portcityhockey.com
