Goulburn hosted the first of several NSW Indoor Hockey Championships to be staged at the Veolia Arena over the weekend.
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The Open Men’s Championship started at lunch time on Friday and continued through to Sunday. Goulburn’s division one side putting on an impressive display of skill in their first game to win against Orange seven goals to nil.
In their second game at 4.20pm, they defeated Nepean 1 seven goals to three.
The speed and skills of these games were nothing short of phenomenal.
On Saturday morning Goulburn had the first game against Lithgow and again Goulburn men prevailed eight goals to five.
Their final pool round put them up against the favourites for the tournament, Illawarra South Coast 1, who have been the dominant force in indoor hockey for the last couple of years.
This was a match with plenty of cat and mouse offence and defence with Goulburn passing the ball between players in the back part of the court then quickly striking at whatever defensive gaps they could draw. Illawarra was doing something similar and seemed to have a goal or two advantage by mid game. In the end Illawarra finished ahead 10 goals to seven.
This put Goulburn up against South West Metropolitan 1 in the finals, another powerhouse of indoor hockey with plenty of depth. Unfortunately Goulburn went down two goals to one leaving Illawarra and South West Metro to fight it out for championship honours.
Illawarra won 5 to 2.
In division two Goulburn’s side started out on the back foot with a loss to South West Metro 2-9. They then beat Manning valley 5-3 on Friday evening. Southern Highlands handed Goulburn 2 another loss, 7- 4 early Saturday. Then a couple of hours later Goulburn turned the table on the highlands beating them 4 to 3.
On Sunday morning Goulburn played Nepean 2 in the finals and defeated them 3 to 1. However it was Southern Highlands who went through to play South West Metro Two in the grand final but South West Metro prevailed 10 to 3.
Next weekend, October 27 to 29 Goulburn hosts the NSW Open Women’s Indoor Championship and even more teams are expected to play at the Veolia Arena and Basketball Stadium courts.
After a week’s break where Orange Hockey Association will host the under 13 boy’s and girl’s, hockey return to Goulburn on November 10-12 for the under 18 women’s.