Great Britain ended the first day of the Setanta Trophy in
Dublin without a point, with one match ending predictably and one not.
On the predictable front was GB women’s performance against the European champions, Germany. Germany were the clear favourites but it was a match that did not even smoulder, never mind catch fire. To their credit, the GB girls never seemed in awe of their opponents and this was evident when, just after the break, Susie Gilbert managed to cancel out Natascha Keller’s first half goal with a penalty corner conversion. But Rachel Walker was sent to the sin bin two minutes later for a stick tackle and during power play skipper Marion Rodewald found the net for the Germans. Final score 2-1 to Germany. Somehow, one could not help feeling that the industrious Helen Richardson, sitting in the stands with an injury, might just have tipped this match in GB’s favour.
Looking through my photographs of the match between Great Britain’s men and Canada, the game was clearly more exciting than I remembered it It also appears that GB’s appeal for a penalty stroke was not without cause as there seems to be a Canadian foot between ball and goal line. In fact GB were robbed on two occasions, the second being when ‘keeper Michael Mahood tipped the ball round his far post from a penalty corner strike (see picture). GB never seemed to get to grips with this match and paid the price. Peter Short scored within seconds of the second half re-start putting Canada one goal ahead. Which is where they stayed until the final whistle. The most memorable thing about this match was Ashley Jackson’s new crew cut, making him look more like James Tindall than James Tindall. Canada were likely to be the easiest of GB’s three opponents in Dublin and their failure to breeze passed them must give cause for concern.
Those looking for value for money hockey would not have been disappointed by the meeting between the men of Ireland and the men of Pakistan. There really is only one way to approach a game like this when you are the underdogs and that is to come out fighting from the bell, which is what Ireland did. Two Tims, Tim Lewis and Tim Cockram put Ireland two ahead within ten minutes. Muhammad Waqas, Rehan Butt, Wauas Akbar and Muhammad Saqlain were able to avenge the slightly embarrassing start, although the final score, 4-2, does not really do justice to Ireland’s fighting spirit in this match. If they play like this tomorrow they are going to pose GB a real problem.
Earlier, Ireland’s women had gone down 3-1 to South Africa.
GB’s women open proceedings tomorrow with a match against South Africa, followed by the men who take on Ireland.
