South West two

AFTER a narrow loss to league-leaders Truro C last week left Tavistock second from bottom.

Injury and absence left five squad members unavailable, including top-scorer Venton. A bare 11 took to the field — mainly consisting of younger players.

Coach Wood adjusted positions and Tavistock started well. Honey and Cull quickly identified the Caradon play-maker and closed him down. The game was even until the 13th minute when Russell deflected a cross to Kurzman, who decisively slammed the ball home, giving Tavistock the lead.

Six minutes later Caradon struck a penalty corner, which deflected off Osborne’s pads and edged inside the post to tie the game at half time.

Tavistock reacted immediately the whistle blew, quickly winning their own penalty corner.  Jake Walker deflected convincingly into the goal for a 2-1 lead.

Yet again Caradon countered, winning several more penalty corners. The third produced a well-worked switch across the goal creating an easy finish for the Caradon striker to equalise.

All appeared set for a draw, but Tavistock continued attacking. A minute from the end they were rewarded. Russell charged through the Caradon defence, crossing to Kurtzman who set up Walker to smash in the winner in Tavistock B’s finest field hockey of this season. Tavistock took three deserved points from a truly exciting match.

Youth and energy came through in this match. Many of the team were 13 to 15 years old, but played mature, unselfish and confident hockey. Passing was swift and the team changed their point of attack regularly, keeping Caradon guessing.

The entire team earned ‘man of the match’ this week, including coach Dale Wood who has developed this team so rapidly. Tavistock are aiming for the top five this season and sit at eighth in the table at the Christmas break.