Saturday, March 22, 2008

Blakeney claims Australian title

Three Rock's Peter Blakeney was part of the snappily title SmokeFree West Australia Thundersticks that recently won the Australian Hockey League, contested over two weeks this month.

It is the top competition of Australian hockey, with seven rounds of regular competition followed by two rounds of finals.

Blakeney scored five goals in the competition, impressive as he was not the regular drag-flicker, as well as getting his fair share of yellow cards, picking up two within 15 minutes of one match.

The win for the young Thundersticks side was even more impressive as the team had lost senior players with the retirement of Michael Boyce and Daniel Trigwell; the early injury of Richard Gibson and the broken jaw of Geoffrey Boyce just before the team left.

The players were battling it out for a spot on the national team in the lead-up to Beijing. Two players from the Thundersticks squad, as a result, join veterans Aaron Hopkins and Bevan George in the preliminary Australian Olympic squad of 24: Kiel Brown and Fergus Kavanagh.

No comments: