Hockey: King's ties with University Blue after late rally

King's United scored a last-minute goal to draw 3-3 with University Blue in their premier men's hockey match yesterday.

For most of the first half, King's had the upper hand, forcing University to make simple errors.

It was not until 30 minutes into the game that a goal was added to the scoreboard, with Rory McLean of King's gathering a misdirected pass and beating the goalie.

University came out of the break a different team and scored almost straight away from a mix-up inside the King's circle to level the score 1-1.

King's had three penalty corners in a row but, after failing to score, was too slow in getting back on defence, with Chris Ashton scoring to give University the lead.

That situation did not last for long, with King's hitting through Morgan McLean's reverse stick shot hitting the back of the net.

Richard Storey converted a penalty shot to snatch the lead back for University.

With about a minute remaining, King's ran the ball the length of the field and found the equaliser, and then had a chance to take the win after it was awarded a penalty corner in the dying seconds.

Momona beat City Highlanders 1-0 in a tight game in the women's premier competition.

For the first 15 minutes, neither team seemed able to complete moves due to the dogged persistence of their opponents - in particular Samara Dalziel for Momona and Arna McLeod for City.

The game was so much end-to-end that after City Highlanders broke into their circle to strike it was only within seconds that Momona had gained a penalty corner at the opposite end. This was well defended by City goalie Ellie Tredinnick.

Momona had some more opportunities to score before halftime but shot straight at the goalie's pads every time.

After halftime the game did not improve and both teams were hitting long balls to no-one. However, Momona was encroaching into the danger zone more. Eventually, Momona got it right, with Pip Symes hitting the backboard with a lovely strike.

City rallied with some tidy play through the middle but could not find an equaliser.

In other games, Taieri beat St Hilda's 3-0 and University A beat King's A 9-1.

 - Shirley Gillett and Tim Miller