Honours to Tuataras in men’s final

THE Taieri Tuataras held off a gallant Albany Alligators team to win the Dunedin premier men’s final 30 on Saturday.

After having a big week to make it to the final, the Alligators came out of the sheds firing as they looked to win three games on the trot, and win the competition from fourth on the points table.

The Tuataras, however, had other plans.

It was obvious from the first whistle that the Tuas were out to win, and they immediately put the Alligators defence under a lot of pressure.

Felix McIntosh, in goal for the Alligators, weathered the onslaught, and Billy Sheard and Johnny Thorn worked together nicely out of deep defence as the game went scoreless in the first half.

James Nicolson had a prime opportunity to put the Tuas in front early in the third quarter.

The crowd was convinced that it was a goal, but McIntosh saved the day again.

The Tuas earned an attacking penalty corner, and with Jordan Ward lined up at the top of the circle, the Alligators knew what was going to be coming.

There was a mistrap at the top of the circle, stopping Ward from firing one into the net.

All was not lost as the play was recovered well and Matthew West deflected a strong injection up into the net past the unsighted McIntosh.

Things began to flow for the Tuas, and the attacking opportunities continued to pile up.

Taieri had a breakaway up front and a threeontwo in the circle.

Nicolson found the backboard, but a penalty corner had already been awarded for an earlier infringement.

Ward lined up again at the top of the circle with Nicolson to his right — the first option went to Ward, but it was flicked into the foot of the first runner.

It went to Ward again, who was not going to be denied a third time, making it 20 to Taieri.

With 3min 30sec left on the clock, the Alligators decided to pull the goalkeeper to give one final push.

Unfortunately, it did not have the desired effect and the Tuas were able to score a third goal through Manu Henderson to really seal the deal.