Upper Great Southern Hockey Association compete strongly at the CBH Women’s Country Championships

The Upper Great Southern Hockey Association had four teams competing at the annual CBH Group Women’s Country Championships in Perth at the weekend, with three of the sides among the placegetters.

The UGSHA had teams in division one, division two, division four and masters division one.

The division one team won two matches, drew one and lost one to finish third after the qualifying rounds.

The impressive outfit played Busselton in the play-off match, emerging 2-1 winners to finish third overall in the competition.

The division two team had a young side that finished with four losses and played East Avon in the ninth and 10th place play-off game.

Despite playing an exciting brand of hockey, the inexperienced side conceded in the last minute of the contest, going down 1-0.

The division four team notched two wins and a draw in their campaign, finishing on an equal seven points with Central Midlands at the top of the pool standings.

Both sides were equal on goal difference and could not be separated and a coin toss was used to determine who would finish first in the pool, with Uppers losing the toss to finish second.

In their crossover game against Avon, Uppers were ultimately outplayed and lost 0-2 but then played a third place play-off match against CMCHA, defeating their opposition 4-1 to finish third overall.

The masters division one team won four games and drew one to finish on top of the standings.

They played Eastern Districts in the grand final and after a great close free flowing game, Uppers looked to have the title after going ahead 1-0 but a penalty corner was awarded as the siren went and Eastern Districts scored to equalise the game.

This put the game into the best of five one-on-one shootouts.

Scores were tied at 2-all going into the last round, forcing a one-on-one sudden death decider, with Eastern Districts scoring first to put the game to bed and the masters had to settle for second place.

UGSHA Fuel to Go & Play development officer Rodney Johnson thanked all the players, coaches, managers and umpires for an awesome weekend of hockey.