New South Wales (NSW) have found a series of strong results at the Women’s Master Championships, held in Newcastle from September 29 to October 9.
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The two week tournament came down to a day of gold medal matches across the Saturday, with NSW taking home three of the seven first places up for grabs.
The home state also collected two bronze medals.
Alongside NSW, Queensland (QLD) matched their gold medal haul of three, but also collected a silver and a bronze medal across the play-off day.
Although NSW were dominant across the tournament, QLD and Victoria (VIC) opened the series of gold medal matches, with QLD winning off the back of a rapid-fire series of goals across eight minutes.
NSW’s first win came over QLD rivals in the 40s.
Lisa Quinn scored an early goal for the home state, but Jenny Anderson answered back just five minutes later to level the score in the title-fight, and the 1-1 scoreline was how regulation time ended.
The game came down to a shoot-out, the only gold medal of the day to do so.
NSW came out on top after seven shots from each side, with Simone Keiser’s defence against QLD’s scorer Anderson the crucial save that won them the championship gold.
The next three age brackets were missing NSW, but all five of the final age brackets had Western Australia (WA) appear.
The first saw Victoria deliver a 2-0 defeat to WA, which came off an early goal for Lizzie Laird.
The 1-0 scoreline was almost the final result until Lisa Benfell delivered the sealing goal late on to ensure Victoria collected gold.
WA were then defeated twice by Queensland in the 50s and 55s age bracket, both by 1-0 scorelines.
Julie Chapman was the lone goalscorer in the 50s grand final, while Lyn Gurlke scored the winner for Queensland in the 55s.
In the 60s, it was New South Wales domination over Western Australia as the home state’s Lyndall Dockrill scored a brace, while Kate Ryan opened the four-goal haul and Deborah Orrock added to the tally.
The biggest scoreline of the day came last for New South Wales however, as Western Australia collapsed in the 65s grand final.
The first goal came just four minutes into the grand final from Helen Lansdown, and Gloria McPherson added a second just two minutes later.
Jenny Grey’s goal two minutes after that sealed the game for NSW, as the 3-0 lead just ten minutes in was too much for WA to recover from.
Grey and Lansdown took advantage of the goal flurry to notch braces for themselves, and Joan Hart and Kerrie Wood scored a goal apiece as they took home the last gold on offer for the day.
Disappointingly for Western Australia, all five of their grand final appearances resulted in silver medals.
Victoria also collected one gold and a silver medal.
New South Wales proved that they are some of the best in Australia for finding the back of the net in the Championships, with four of NSW’s players heading home with the top goalscorer awards.
Jill Hay won with 5 goals, 2 from open play and 3 from penalty corners, in the 40s age bracket, and Tracey Makings scored 2 field goals and 6 penalty corners for a golden boot haul of 8 in the 45s.
In the 60s Lyndall Dockrill scored five goals, 2 field goals and 3 penalty corners, to top the tables, while Helen Lansdown topped the 65s scorers, scoring 5 field goals and a single penalty corner.
Grand Final Results
- 35s – Queensland 3 def. Victoria 0
- 40s – Queensland 1 (4) def. by New South Wales 1 (5)
- 45s – Victoria 2 def. Western Australia 0
- 50s – Queensland 1 def. Western Australia 0
- 55s – Western Australia 0 def. by Queensland 1
- 60s – New South Wales 4 def. Western Australia 0
- 65s – New South Wales 8 def. Western Australia 0