Okehampton Columbines 1

Dartmouth 0

OKEHAMPTON Ladies went into this league hockey match knowing that they would need to adapt to the loss of their lead goal scorer Jo Moppett and centre striker Jo Drake due to injury.

Several people were playing in new positions and at first Oke played tentatively without the necessary determination.

After the first quarter they settled down and started to play some good team hockey. Good intelligent short passing between Sarah Jones, Jane Jones and Viv Weatherington created some dangerous attacking movements by Okehampton. The same teamwork between the Jones mother and daughter team also prevented some incisive attacks on the right by Dartmouth. Where even the good positioning, tackling and interception of the dynamic duo of Jones and Jones did not prevent the fast right wing from Dartmouth she was frustrated by the rock solid tackling of captain Jenny Humphrey — which earned her the player of the match award from Dartmouth.

The game continued to be fairly evenly matched. Okehampton had several short corners but could not quite get it past the able Dartmouth defence.

Oke's Hannah Whiteley had some splendid runs down the right wing but both teams were frustrated in actually getting the ball over the goal line. The longer Okehampton played however, the greater advantage they gained as confidence grew.

There was more space in the centre of the field and Oke used this to make several breakthroughs in the second half. Finally the ball found Alex Collins, having an excellent game at right inner, who tore towards the goal and, with no hesitation, struck at goal to score the only goal of the match just a minute before the final whistle.

l Okehampton Ladies play Bude Seconds at home next week starting at 2.30pm.