Men hot on trail of medal

TASMANIA’S Over-50s have roared into medal contention at the Australian Men’s Masters Hockey Championships with a 4-1 defeat of South Australia yesterday.

They moved into fourth position before today’s 5.30pm must-win clash with winless Northern Territory.

Playing-coach Stuart Beltz was delighted with the way his side responded to falling a goal down in the second minute.

“SA came out hard and caught us by surprise, but after settling, we levelled the score with some excellent running by our strikers,” Beltz said.

“We have been concentrating on our quick ball movement and counter-attack.”

Tasmania equalised through Scott Street before breaking the game wide open in the third quarter with unanswered goals to Beltz, Michael Irwin and Leigh Richardson.

“Scott and brother Gary Street are working well in attack,” Beltz said.

“Marty Bissett is controlling our passes into attack and the wise heads of Richard Chap- man and Irwin are ever dependable.

“Our strikers Paul French and Richardson are finding some form heading into our last two round-robin games and NT tomorrow is now our focus and a must-win for us to play for medals.”

In other matches, the Over-65s were humbled 5-1 by South Australia, but the Over-60s defeated ACT 3-1 with goals to Terence Deavin, Don Bowser and Gerry Barwick.

In Newcastle, the Over-50s women’s side defeated South Australia 4-0 with goals from Fi Chambers, Ruth Matters, Peri Buckley and Jo Phillips.

The Over-40 women defeated ACT 2-0 with goals coming from Sonia Poke and Deb West, both in the second quarter.

The Over-45s Australian side has also been announced with Brett Withington (captain) and Damian Smith selected, while Alistair Brooks, Jarrad Poke and Peter Kooner were named as shadow players. The pair will compete in the Masters World Cup in Terrassa, Spain, next July-August.