Friars cook up hockey masters success

Chichester Friars completed a second league and cup double in three seasons at the Wessex Masters cup finals day at Haslemere Hockey Club – but only after a nail-biting finale.
By The Newsroom
Published 28th Apr 2015, 19:00 BST
The successful Chichester teamThe successful Chichester team
The successful Chichester team

Two goals from Bryan Locke and a third from Tracy Boyce saw them ease past last year’s cup winners Salisbury in their semi-final and set up what proved to be a pulsating final with Warminster-based West Wilts.

The free-scoring Friars had been in superb form in their league campaign, racking up 106 goals in just 18 games, including a 6-0 thrashing of their Wiltshire rivals just two weeks previously.

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As has been seen so often before, league form often counts for nothing in the tension of a cup final.

In normal time Andrew Savory and Locke again found the net for the Priory Park outfit – but these were matched a West Wilts side in determined mood.

After the first battery of five penalty stokes ended 4-4, the sides moved to sudden death. With the score at 7-6 the nerve of their opponents broke, leaving the Friars team to celebrate a second double.

Chichester’s other veterans’ team, the Deacons, also qualified for the finals day from their league, but found divisional champions Andover too strong in their semi-final.