Spotlight on Dangerous play as TNB League gets underway
KUCHING: A total of 10 matches were played in the first week as the TNB Hockey League got underway at the Sarawak Hockey Stadium last Saturday.
Two matches resulted in blowout scores.
One mismatch was in the men’s Pool ‘D’ game between Flystick HC and MatHoc B.
Flystick ran away to win with six of their players registered on the scoresheet.
Mohd. Azam completed his hattrick in the 27th minute to put Flystick ahead 6- 0 before MatHoc finally found the net in the next minute to prevent a whitewash. But Flystick poured in five more to win 11-1.
The other blowout was in the women’s draw which saw HazicontAlldiv hammering Excalibur HC 12- 0.
Six players opened accounts with Vagressia Apang and Vernity Rickey scoring hattricks.
Bulan Saoh and Beatrice Sawin each had a brace while Nellyana Aling and Samantha Sigah also scored.
Meanwhile, Reunited HC edged past SMK Bako 2-1 while Luctor Mix easily downed CF Team 4-2 in other matches in the women’s division.
One match in the men’s compet ition which proved interesting featured Dangerous Lee Matthew, who was in the national team that won the 2013 SEA Games gold medal, in the line-up.
The Bukit Jalil graduate, back in Kuching on a two-month holiday, played for the Belia Git team that took on MatHoc A.
He was the standout player as he broke the deadlock in the 43rd minute for Git to eventually win 1- 0.
It came when Dangerous finally converted a penalty corner to beat MatHoc’s overworked goalkeeper Fiqkri Hassan who kept his team afloat as Belia Git had numerous penalty corner chances.
A veteran of the Kuching game commended Dangerous Lee who had gathered the Belia Git squad.
“As a star player, he could have played for any team in the league, especially the ones with a good chance of winning the tournament,” he said.
“He put together Belia Git because he wanted to play with his friends from Kampung Git. It is not often you see top players doing this.”
The SMK Penrissen product was pleased with how his team played.
“We proved that we can play despite having players that have just started playing the game,” he said.
“I am happy that we played with a lot of determination even if we did not play that well.”
The league resumes this Saturday with five matches at the Jalan Padungan venue.
Other results: KHC 2 MTOB 1; Warrior HC 4 UNIXX 2; Greenian 2 SMK Bako 1; SEB HC 4 BLHC 0; Excalibur HC 3 Tasik Biru 0.