News

Barbados scores a first (Mar 23)
Barbados scored its first-ever Commonwealth Games hockey win by defeating Nigeria 4-1 in its Classification Match.
In what was both teams' first Games appearance, Barbados relegated Nigeria to bottom place with a second half scoring spree.
The West Indian nation hadn't registered a goal in this year's competition until today's match but sprang out of the blocks, earning four penalty corners in the opening five minutes.
Tricia-Ann Greaves of Barbados became the first woman in her country's history to score a Commonwealth Games goal when she drilled through the Nigerian defence from a penalty corner in the fifth minute.
But Nigeria wrested back control of the midfield as Christy Agbo levelled the score in the 14th minute when she was left unchecked in the circle.
Nigeria looked to have the better of its opposition and should have led at the break after Agbo missed the chance to convert her second from a cross from Lucy Michael Aleji.
But Barbados came out the more determined side after half-time, putting the Nigerian defence under pressure with their spirited attack.
Greaves of Barbados scored her second goal from a loose ball after a penalty corner in the 59th minute and team-mate Joanna Davis made it 3-1 when she converted another penalty corner two minutes later.
Barbados's Allison Olivia Haynes sealed the history-making win in the final minute of the match.

Australia & New Zealand dominate hockey (Mar 22)
(Commonwealth Games) In a convincing win, Australia has defeated South Africa 3-0 in the Women's Preliminary Round at the State Netball and Hockey Centre.
Although slow to start, Australia played an attacking game, with its strong backline clearing the ball well and forwards quick to take the play up the field.
Suzane Faulkner opened the scoring 12 minutes into the first half for her second goal of the tournament.
Late in the first half South Africa had more of the play but was unable to convert from two penalty corners and trailed 1-0 at half-time.
Australia came out of the break looking much more convincing. The New Zealand Women's Hockey team finished the Preliminary Rounds undefeated, after slaughtering England 4-0.
Both sides went into the match undefeated, but England struggled to convert its scoring chances.
New Zealand's first goal came in the 18th minute, when Captain Suzanne Muirhead converted a penalty corner for her first goal of the tournament. New Zealand scored three more goals in the second half, with the first coming in the 42nd minute from Diana Weavers, after she also converted a penalty corner.
Honor Dillon deflected a field goal in the 49th minute, giving New Zealand a 3-0 lead. The final goal of the match came in the 56th minute, when 16 year-old New Zealand school girl Charlotte Harrison scored a field goal to give her side a 4-0 victory. It was Harrison’s fifth goal of the Games. New Zealand has now qualified to play in the second Semi Final on day eight, while Scotland has easily accounted for Barbados 8-0 in their final Pool 2 match. Both sides were scoreless until the 23rd minute when Scotland's Samantha Judge scored a field goal. The score became 2-0 the following minute, when Catriona Semple deflected a goal from a penalty corner.
Vikki Bunce scored her first goal of the tournament in the last minute of the half, giving Scotland a 3-0 halftime lead. Emma Rochlin converted a penalty corner in the 46th minute, before Bunce scored two more goals in two minutes. The first came from a penalty corner conversion in the 58th minute, while the second came from a field goal, to put Scotland up 6-0.
Bunce then scored another two goals, deflecting a field goal into the net in the 65th minute and with just one minute remaining, Bunce scored her fifth goal of the match and tournament, as she converted a penalty corner taking the score to 8-0.
Despite the dominant result, Scotland will not qualify for the Semi-Finals and neither will Barbados, which was unable to register a win during the tournament.
Source: Commonwealth Games

Aymar & Goderie scoop hockey awards (Dec 4)
From World Hockey.org: Argentine superstar Luciana Aymar collected her record third World Hockey Women's Player of the Year award in Canberra this afternoon.
This was the eighth time the International Hockey Federation has presented the World Hockey Player of the Year awards, with Aymar the runaway winner for the second consecutive year.
Maartje Goderie of the Netherlands was named the World Hockey Women's Young Player of the Year. The award is presented to the outstanding player under the age of 23.
Story link

Dutch claim hockey trophy (Dec 4)
From World Hockey.org: Netherlands claimed the women's Samsung Hockey Champions Trophy crown with a heart-stopping penalty stroke victory over Australia in the final this afternoon.
The Dutch have assumed control of international women's hockey with their second successive Champions Trophy title and have confirmed their world number one ranking ahead of Germany and Australia.
Story link

Hockeyroos demolish Argentinians (Nov 23)
The Australian Hockeyroos have put on a blistering performance and demolished the Argentinian women's hockey team 5-2 in a final hit-out before the Champions Trophy tournament next week.
The Hockeyroos took a 2-1 lead into half time thanks to goals from Angie Skirving and Nicole Arrold, and never looked back with Nikki Hudson, Emily Halliday and Kim Walker completing the impressive win by scoring in the second half.
"That was very pleasing," Coach Frank Murray told Seven.com.au.
"That (win) will give the girls a lot of confidence (coming into the Champions Trophy tournament)".
Argentina are ranked as the top nation in women's hockey, and with other nations such as Olympic gold medallists Germany and powerhouses Holland, China and Korea all coming to Canberra to contest the Champions Trophy, this win over the South Americans will give the Hockeyroos some confidence.
The official squad for the Champions Trophy is:
Wendy Alcorn, Nicole Arrold, Madonna Blyth, Suzie Faulkner, Deanne Gilbert, Emily Halliday, Kate Hollywood, Nikki Hudson, Amy Korner, Kobie McGurk, Emma Meyer, Donna-Lee Patrick, Megan Rivers, Rebecca Sanders, Angie Skirving, Karen Smith, Melanie Twitt, Kim Walker.
By Rick D'Andrea & Sam Ryan
Hockey Australia web

Hockeyroos off to a flyer in Champions Trophy (Nov 29)
The Hockeyroos are firing on all cylinders in the early stages of the Champions Trophy, currently being contested in Canberra between six of the world's top women's hockey nations. In their first three matches the Hockeyroos are yet to concede a goal, and now join the Netherlands at the top of the table undefeated. They will play Argentina, who they last week convincingly defeated in two friendly matches, and then on Saturday, in what is shaping as a preview to the gold-medal match, they will face off against the Netherlands.
But to keep their expectations in perspective, they need to look no further than the world's number one team. The Netherlands have scored 13 goals from their first three matches, and conceded just two.
But if the Hockeyroos can once again defeat Argentina, they will have booked a place in Sunday's gold-medal playoff regardless of the result on Saturday.
All the action from the tournament can be seen on ABC-TV, with round 4 highlights on Thursday night, and full coverage of Australia v Netherlands broadcast on Saturday from 2pm and the gold-medal match on Sunday from 2pm. Highlights from other weekend matches will be shown on Saturday and Sunday night.
The Hockeyroos are aiming for their seventh Champions Trophy since the tournament was first played in 1987.
By Sam Ryan

Hockeyroos demolish Argentinians (Nov 23)
The Australian Hockeyroos have put on a blistering performance and demolished the Argentinian women's hockey team 5-2 in a final hit-out before the Champions Trophy tournament next week.
The Hockeyroos took a 2-1 lead into half time thanks to goals from Angie Skirving and Nicole Arrold, and never looked back with Nikki Hudson, Emily Halliday and Kim Walker completing the impressive win by scoring in the second half.
"That was very pleasing," Coach Frank Murray told Seven.com.au.
"That (win) will give the girls a lot of confidence (coming into the Champions Trophy tournament)".
Argentina are ranked as the top nation in women's hockey, and with other nations such as Olympic gold medallists Germany and powerhouses Holland, China and Korea all coming to Canberra to contest the Champions Trophy, this win over the South Americans will give the Hockeyroos some confidence.
The official squad for the Champions Trophy is:
Wendy Alcorn, Nicole Arrold, Madonna Blyth, Suzie Faulkner, Deanne Gilbert, Emily Halliday, Kate Hollywood, Nikki Hudson, Amy Korner, Kobie McGurk, Emma Meyer, Donna-Lee Patrick, Megan Rivers, Rebecca Sanders, Angie Skirving, Karen Smith, Melanie Twitt, Kim Walker.
By Rick D'Andrea & Sam Ryan
Hockey Australia web

World Cup qualifiers loom (Oct 17)
The Hockeyroos will be hoping to improve on the nil-all draw result from the last time they encountered New Zealand when they battle out a three-match series to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. The campaign begins in Auckland next weekend.
The winner of the three-match tournament which moves to Sydney on November 3 and 5 will qualify automatically for the 11th Hockey World Cup which will be held in Spain next year.
"We always expect a real contest against New Zealand. They are continually improving, having forced their way back into the top six women's nations. On any given day anyone in that top six could beat the other," national coach Frank Murray said.
The Hockeyroos have selected three younger players fresh from their Junior World Cup campaign held in Chile last month. Madonna Blyth, Kate Hollywood and Kobie McGurk were all part of the junior team that fell to the Netherlands in the bronze medal play off that have been promoted to senior level to take on New Zealand.
The blend of youth and experience will hopefully pay off for Frank Murray who refuses to read to much into previous results and has selected a team quite different from group that one the Indira Ghandi Gold Cup just last month.
"You can't read too much into the results from India. Both playing groups were different, conditions will be different," Murray said.
By Leah Bound
Hockey Australia

Hockeyroos triumph after shaky start (Oct 6)
After a slow start to the 7th Indira Gandhi International Gold Cup in New Delhi, the Hockeyroos dominated against Italy in game three.
The Hockeyroos had an impress lead up to the Cup, but in the first round they struggled to find form. Game one saw a 0-0 draw against New Zealand, although Australia dominated the shots on goal they were unable to convert in the 37 degree heat.
In game two they came out firing against Malaysia with the first goal scored by Nikki Hudson in the first two minutes. They ended the fist half with a late goal that gave them a 2-0 lead into the final half.
The second half of the match would have caused concern for coach Frank Murray as we saw a return of the form they produced against New Zealand in game one.
Malaysia brilliantly defended their goal throughout the second half, as the Hockeyroos were unable to capitalise on their 58 circle penetrations to Malaysia's 16, 25 goal shots to 3 and 15 penalty corners to 1.
Malaysia was able to score in the 69th minute to end the game with a 2-1 win to Australia.
It was in game three that the Hockeyroos begun to show signs of improvement with a 4-1 win over Italy. After numerous shots on goal they were able to convert 4 goals, but much to coach Murray's frustration, still lacked deficiency up forward.
"It was a better performance today but we are still not managing to convert our opportunities," he said. "Offensively, our structure improved but we failed to convert a penalty stroke, again."
The Hockeyroos once again struggled with the second half only scoring one goal in the 37 th minute after three in the first half. Italy managed their only goal in the 66 th minute.
The Hockeyroos will meet India on Friday 7 th , where a win or a draw will see them through to the final, which will be played against India after they secured their place with a 2-1 win against New Zealand on Wednesday.
By Taryn Preston
Hockey Australia homepage
Hockey Australia photo gallery

Features

Links