Penzance 2

Tavistock Hockey Club men’s B needed points to maintain their league place against higher placed Penzance.

Individual duels broke out across the pitch. Gunther-Rees showed great skills mopping up attacks from his unaccustomed position in the centre of the backs.

Eleven minutes in, and a scramble in front of Tavistock’s goal.  Penzance pushed the ball at the goal, and in the jumble of feet and sticks, goalkeeper Osborne was unsighted - the ball rolled into the goal to open the scoring in a rather low-key way.

Tavistock recovered quickly — Kurtzman made a number of promising leading runs up the left and Walker kept the visitors stretched, staying wide on the right.

The midfield took possession and held while the forwards got into the Penzance D. Striker Andrews saw his opportunity, turned deftly and hit the ball through a gap to even the scores.

After half time the game continued to be hard-fought – Whitehead and Kirwin tackled hard for Tavistock, adapting well to defensive positions, and forcing Penzance to attack wide.

A hard Penzance cross was deflected high at the goal. Osborne had the angle covered but the ball went high overhead and dropped under the bar to give the visitors the lead.

Tavistock never slackened however. Campbell and Honey led a move from the midfield as the game drew towards a close. Russell forced another scramble in the D and the ball came to Maxa who turned and executed a top-class back-stick strike, crashing the ball against the backboards to level the scores and sealing his place as player of the match.

Tavistock came away with one point but the feeling of a win, having turned what started as a scrappy game into a high quality performance.