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John Fernandes Insurance Hockey in deadlock
– Hope saves Hikers twice
With two matches completed and both resulting in draws, this year’s John Fernandes Insurance Services Ltd men’s hockey Second Division League is a difficult one to predict.
Randy Hope
Hikers opened the tournament on Friday with a 1-1 draw against Old Fort and returned three days later to extract a similar result in their 1-1 tie with GCC.
The Carib Degenerates and Western Dragons are both yet to play in the competition.
Monday’s clash saw GCC begin the match at a hot pace pushing the young Hikers unit on their heels in the opening minutes. Shad Fernandes and Stuart Gonsalves controlled the midfield for GCC, but the strikers failed on each occasion on the final pass through the defensive pressure of speedy newcomer Cornel Heywood and the rest of the Hikers defence.
The late arrival of veteran Randy Hope restored some balance to the game, but it was GCC that struck first in the 24th minute as a diving effort by Leonard George was partially saved, before right winger Eric Hing slammed home the rebound from close range.
Just as the match seemed to be headed for a GCC victory, Hikers pulled one back through a powerful penalty corner strike from Randy Hope in the 53rd minute. They seemed rejuvenated by his goal and applied consistent pressure on GCC with Robert France producing some fine runs down the right flank, creating several chances which were poorly supported by his teammates who failed to latch onto them across the GCC goalmouth.
In the opening match of the tournament on Friday in hockey’s momentous return to the DCC ground, Old Fort and Hikers played to a similar 1-1 clash with Randy Hope again getting the equaliser in the dying minutes of the game.
Old Fort began the game tentatively as Hikers pressed for a goal in the early minutes, but as the game wore on Old Fort created several counterattacking moves which paid off in the 20th minute when newcomer Kevin Melville found the back of the net. As Old Fort grew in confidence Hikers found it difficult to level the contest until Hope managed to fine the back of the net just before the final whistle sounded.
Hikers who’ve played two matches to date lead the points table of the two-round competition with 2 points followed by Old Fort and GCC with 1 point each from one match. Western Dragons and Carib Degenerates are yet to play.
The tournament consists of two round-robin rounds where teams earn three points for a win and one point for a draw. At the end of the two rounds, the team with the most points will be declared the winner.
Matches continue this Friday with Western Dragons versus Carib Degenerates at GCC, while Old Fort tackles GCC at DCC.
All matches begin at 16:45 hrs.
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