Big teams produce big scorelines

With her team already 10-0 down, things couldn't get much worse for Free State goalkeeper Michelle Steenkamp.

But then, with 24 minutes left in their game against Southern Gauteng in the Spar Women's Hockey Interprovincial, they did.

Steenkamp attempted a save, fell awkwardly and dislocated her shoulder. She gallantly tried to continue with the match but the injury was simply too serious. And in a move that at first seemed controversial, tournament director Merle Sterley called the game off 20 minutes before the end.

Spectators at first believed the match had been stopped because of the lop-sided scoreline and Free State's seemingly hopeless plight to make any impression on the Southerns defence.

But Sterley explained that Steenkamp's injury and Free State's lack of a back-up goalkeeper had led to the decision being made.

"Graeme (Ortlieb, Southerns' coach) said that if Free State were happy I could pull the game," she said. "And with none of the girls prepared to play kicking back, it was decided to stop the game early after speaking to the Free State coach.

"Michelle actually wanted to carry on playing but we couldn't allow it. She could have done a lot more damage," added Sterley. Free State manager Braam van Wyk said: "Michelle dislocated her shoulder six weeks ago and now it's happened again." He added that Bianca Grobler is due to arrive as a replacement.

Wednesday's other matches produced some similar one-sided results as defending champions Western Province defeated Mynahs 9-0 and the SA Junior side beat Eastern Province 7-0, prompting SA junior and senior coach Jenny King to speak out against the tournament format.

"I just can't believe that the organisers haven't changed it to a strength-versus-strength format," she said. "The same thing happens every year and if we had strength-versus-strength we wouldn't have lop-sided days like today. It's about time something is done to make these matches more competitive."

Other games on Wednesday saw North West trailing Midlands 0-2 until the final 19 minutes when they scored three times to complete a stunning 3-2 comeback and keep their semifinal hopes alive. Northerns beat Peninsula 4-1 and KZN beat Wits 1-0.