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> 10th
May 2006
Cardiff win Welsh Premiership
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Cardiff Men's 1st XI Hockey side capped off a
mixed and long domestic season with a brilliant
display to outclass Whitchurch 5-3 on Sunday to
win the Welsh Premiership,the right to represent
Wales in the 2007 European Cub Championships,
and win the coveted title of the top men's' team
in Wales for the 3rd year in a row.
Cardiff began the game strongly with Whitchurch
unable to cope with Cardiff's superior pace. Che
Makan opened Cardiffs account after 15 minutess
when he was on hand to tap in after a strong run
down the right wing and cross from New Zealand
international Bevan Hari. Whitchurch began to
regain their composure midway through the first
half but found their scoring chances limited
with Cardiff's slick defensive penalty corner
unit nullifying their prolific attack.
With 2 minutes to go in the first half
Whitchurch again found themselves caught out by
Cardiff's superior speed and passing when a
brilliant move opened up the Whitchurch defence
allowing Bevan Hari to tap in.
Cardiff came out after the half-time break and
continued where they left off pressuring the
Whitchurch defence, which had no answer to the
tireless running of Tim Jones and Brendon Noble
and after 10 minutes Brendon Noble was rewarded
with a penalty flick which he coolly dispatched
after he was brought down inside the circle.
This seemed to spur Whitchurch on, with them
forcing numerous fine saves from Cardiff's "in
form" Goalkeeper Steven Gardiner. Whitchurch's
pressure was finally rewarded when a lack in
concentration from Cardiff allowed Whitchurch to
deflect home from close range to bring the score
to 3-1.
With 17 minutes to go an ugly incident ensued
with a Whitchurch player red carded for striking
Cardiff's Welsh Internatonal Mark Ramage who was
yellow carded for retaliating. Cardiff's Mark
Gardiner followed Mark Ramage to the sin bin
minutes later for a bad tackle, leaving
Whitchurch playing with 10 men against 9.
Whitchurch buoyed by their one man advantage
pressed again and their fight back continued
with a fine passing manoeuvre resulting in
Whitchurch scoring their second. Cardiff's
defence held firm with Whitchurch unable to find
the equalising goal, until with 20 seconds on
the clock a re-jigged Cardiff defence again went
to sleep allowing Whitchurch's James Bainbringe
to score a stunning goal and send the game to
extra time.
Cardiff started the extra time period nervously
knowing the return of Gardiner and Ramage from
the sin bin 3 minutes after the start would give
them back the advantage and it duly did. With
Cardiff's confidence now restored they once
again opened Whitchurch up with Brendon Noble
scoring an outstanding diving goal to restore
Cardiff's lead. Stuart Blake wrapped up
proceedings with 5 minutes left to send the
large Cardiff crowd into party mode.
It was an outstanding performance by Cardiff,
but a game they know they should have wrapped up
at 3-0 with improvements still needed in fitness
and concentration. The result left Cardiff
jubilant, as they now move on to their
preparation towards representing Wales in the
European Club Championships in Croatia in June
knowing a good performance could see themselves
playing back in the "B" division next year.
Click here to view competition
results
For information regarding the Welsh Hockey Union,
please contact
Chris Brewer on 02920 573940
or email
[email protected]
Please note: Information
published in news stories was correct at the time
of publication. Information, circumstances and data
may have chance since.
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