Vin­ode Mam­chan

Alan­na Lewis net­ted a first half goal as Paragon eked out a 1–0 win over cel­lar-placed Petrotrin to se­cure a spot in the T&T Hock­ey Board Women's Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion Big-Four at the Na­tion­al Hock­ey Cen­tre, Tacarigua on Sun­day. Go­ing in­to the match, Paragon was fifth on the ta­ble with sev­en points, one be­hind Notre Dame and Har­vard Mar­itime Check­ers, which oc­cu­pied the fi­nal Big-Four spot.

How­ev­er, 21 min­utes in­to the match against the point­less Oil-women, Lewis, a mem­ber of the na­tion­al women's team and the 2010 Women's Play­er of the Year, banged in what turned out to be the match win­ner to push her team up to third spot with ten points, two ahead of de­fend­ing Big-Four cham­pi­ons, Notre Dame. Stag Malvern, with 16 points and de­fend­ing league cham­pi­ons, Shandy Carib Mag­no­lias, three points be­hind, are the top qual­i­fiers for the tour­na­ment which flicks off on June 1.

Browne, Ot­t­ley in­spire Dames

The Men's Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion Big-Four line-up has al­so been com­plet­ed with Queen's Park, Paragon, de­fend­ing cham­pi­on Petrotrin and De­fence Force (ten points), the qual­i­fiers. How­ev­er, Paragon missed out on a chance to end the first round of league com­pe­ti­tion on top af­ter go­ing un­der to the Kwand­wane Browne-in­spired Notre Dame 4–3. Browne, play­ing in on­ly his sec­ond match since re­turn­ing from his Can­ter­bury club in Eng­land, opened the scor­ing with a trade­mark penal­ty cor­ner goal in the minute. But five min­utes lat­er, Paragon drew lev­el when na­tion­al play­er Kiel Mur­ray scored from a penal­ty for a 1–1 half time score.

Two min­utes in­to the sec­ond half Glen­don Su­perville put Paragon ahead for the first time and in the 42nd minute he made it 3–1. Browne and the Dames then turned the match on its head as he scored two quick goals, in the 43rd and 47th, both from penal­ty cor­ners, to get his team even at 3–3 be­fore To­bias Ot­t­ley slammed in the win­ner with the last play of the match. With the loss, Paragon re­mained sec­ond on the ta­ble on goal dif­fer­ence from Queen's Park and ahead of de­fend­ing cham­pi­on, Petrotrin with all three clubs on 16 points. De­fence Force is next with ten points, one ahead of the Dames.

Re­sults

Fri­day:

Trin­i­ty Women:

Malvern 1 (Ke­lisa Alexan­der 63rd) vs Ven­tures 1 (Kristin Abreu 54th).

Sun­day:

Trin­i­ty Women:

Ven­tures 3 (Kristin Abreu 35th, 42nd, Cyan Lue Sue 17th) vs Notre Dame 1 (Ak­ili Williams 8th, Chantel Gar­cia 27th)

Check­ers 3 (Nar­da Cok­er 39th, Christa­bel­la George-Ford 49th, Char­nise Cato 69th) vs Po­lice 1 (Nake­na Ed­wards 68th).

Vet­er­ans Mixed:

Carib 1 (Kern Ram­sam­my 48th) vs Po­lice 0

Cham­pi­onship Women:

Paragon 1 (Alan­na Lewis 21st) vs Petrotrin 0

Cham­pi­onship Men:

Notre Dame 4 (Kwand­wane Browne 26th, 43rd, 47th, To­bias Ot­t­ley 70th) vs Paragon 3 (Glen­don Su­perville 37th, 42nd, Kiel Mur­ray 31st pen)

Stand­ings

Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion

Men:

Teams P W D L F A Pts

QPCC 7 5 1 1 28 10 16

Paragon 7 5 1 1 27 16 16

Petrotrin 7 5 1 1 18 11 16

D/Force 6 3 1 2 10 11 10

Notre Dame 7 3 0 4 17 14 9

Par­adise 6 1 1 4 9 20 4

Fa­ti­ma 7 1 1 5 11 26 4

Malvern 7 1 0 6 9 21 3

Women:

Malvern 6 5 1 0 20 5 16

Mag­no­lias 6 4 1 1 24 7 13

Paragon 6 3 1 2 14 15 10

Notre Dame 6 2 2 2 19 9 8

Check­ers 6 2 2 2 6 9 8

Ven­tures 6 1 1 4 10 25 4

Petrotrin 6 0 0 6 0 25 0

Fix­tures

To­day: Vet­er­ans: Notre Dame vs Malvern, 8 pm

Thurs­day: Vet­er­ans: Carib vs Fa­ti­ma, 8 pm

Fri­day: Trin­i­ty Women: Mag­no­lias vs Malvern, 7 pm.