[Uwh-announce] Nationals results and Australian team selections

[Craig.Proctor at csiro.au]

Hi All,

Many of you would already be aware of the fantastic results for Tasmania at the Nationals during the past week.
But for those who haven't yet caught up with the full results of the finals (played on Wed), they are as follows:

U19A Juniors - Gold Medal, defeating Victoria  5 - 3
Masters  - Gold Medal, defeating  WA   5 - 2
Women - Silver Medal, losing in the final to NSW  1 - 4
Mens - 4th place,  losing to WA Country in extra-time playoff   5 - 4
Juniors Development  - last in the Juniors comp, but hey, great experience! 

You can read the daily reports of the Nationals, written by our TUHA Media Officer, Garry Davidson,  copied below.

On behalf of everyone in TUHA, CONGRATULATIONS to all players,  coaches,  Tassie refs,  helpers,  and to our wonderful Team Manager, Sandra Milner !!

And the results of the Australian Squad Selections for the World Championships to be held in Portugal later this year:

Women: Alice van der Woude
Men: Nick Martyn, Robbie Kilpatrick, Nick Yong
Masters: Rowan Bridley  (separate Masters championship for August in Holland)

U19's: Duncan Mackay, James Milner, Tom Milner, Matt Paine, Cameron Lewis, Brendon Lewis, Matt McCartney, Alex Barnes-Keoghan, Patrick Meaney (separate U19s Championship for August in Holland).

So, again, on behalf of all in TUHA, BIG CONGRATULATIONS to all those players.

Craig
PS.  I have just discovered that underwater hockey has taken hold in Indonesia.  They play at one pool,  not far from the city centre in Jakarta, on Mon and Thurs nights for 2.5hrs on each night (for free!) , and they have a Facebook site ("Jakarta Underwater Hockey") with already around 400 members.  I'm in heaven !!


Garry's reports, sent to The Mercury:

Day 3 Report
>Day 3 of the Australian Underwater Hockey Championships saw Tasmania
>take out the U19 category for the second year in the row. Tasmania
>edged out Victoria 5-3 in a goal-for-goal thriller which kept the
>crowd guessing to the end, when a goal from Brendan Lewis sealed the
>game for Tasmania. Coach Steve Cleary was elated with his teams
>efforts: " They dominated through the competition, but they didn't
>get complacent and held their nerve when they didn't have it all
>their own way in the final." Other goal scorers were Alex
>Barnes-Keoghan (2), James Milner (1) and Will Maher (1). The team is
>celebrating with a Hawian style
>
>The overall competition, being hosted by the ACT-NSW underwater
>hockey associations, is being held at the Tuggeranong Leiusure
>Centre, Canberra, and is structured to have the U19's games finish
>in the middle of the main competition schedule. This means grand
>finals for the Mens, Womens and Masters category will be played on
>Wednesday. The Masters Men currently sit top of their table, and
>expect to meet Western Australia in the grand final, after downing
>them 3-0 today, and foreseeing straight-forward results against
>South Australia and ACT for Tuesday. Tasmanian's Open women have
>dropped oinly one game so far in the competiition, to NSW, and sit
>2nd on the competition ladder. The Mens team have had solid wins
>against ACT, Victoria and NSW, but recorded losses against WA City
>and WA Country, and also fell short in a second Victorian game this
>afternoon, being downed 4-2.
>

>Day 4 report:
>At the end of the round robin stage of the Australian Underwater
>Hockey championships in Tuggeranong pool, Canberra, Tasmania has
>teams in all finals going into Day 5. Coach David Lambert's
>Tasmanian Women confirmed their status as the up-and-coming team in
>their group by beating Victoria 4-3, and Queensland 9-0. They head
>to a play-off against Victoria, the winner of which will most likely
>meet NSW in the grand final around lunchtime on Wednesday. The
>Masters mens competition stayed golden for Tasmania, as they took a
>clean sheet into the 1 vs 4 semi-final against NSW, after
>despatching ACT 10-1. Nick Martyn's young Mens team improved
>significantly in their second round match against Western Australia
>(Country) to gain a 2-2 result, but dropped games against Queensland
>and Western Australia (Metro) to finish the day in 4th spot. They
>will play a morning semi-final against WA.

>
>
>Day 5 Finals report: Canberra
>
>Finals day at the Australian Underwater Hockey championships in
>Canberra saw all Tasmanian teams in play-offs. In the Open Womens
>category, Tasmania defeated Victoria in the 2 vs 3 preliminary final
>4-1, but in the afternoon they were downed by NSW by the same
>margin, so ended with the silver medal. The Open Men lost to Western
>Australian 9-1 in the preliminary final, and in the afternoon, in
>the bronze play-off, went down fighting 5-4 to Western Australia
>(country) deep into extra time. This was a galling result, because
>WA scored their equaliser with only seconds to go. There was better
>news in the Masters Men division, with Tasmania sweeping aside NSW
>in the preliminary final 11-0, and then decisively defeating Western
>Australia 5-2 in the final to take out the gold medal. Goal scorers
>in the Master match were Rowan Bridley (2), Garry Davidson (1), Rudi
>Kloser (1), and Chris Cleaver (1). Australian team selections
>followed, and will be announced on Wednesday evening at the
>championship presentations.