Hockey News of Thursday, 27 March 2003

Source: Joy Online

Ghana Shake Off Initial Upset At Pretoria

Ghana has fully recovered from a stuttering start and is now gunning for honors at the on-going African Cup for Club Champions in Pretoria. Two wins from Exchequers on Tuesday and Wednesday has put them in good stead for qualification to the last four stage of the competition.

The team is third in Pool B with six points from three games played so far. Exchequers were a transformed side on Tuesday when all guns blazing, they dismisssed whipping lads of their pool, Gaborone of Botswana with an 8-0 trouncing. Gad Oblittey scored a hat trick for the central bankers.

The winning streak continued on Wednesday with the Ghanaians having a 5-2 easy run over BAC of Zimbabwe in a pacy and physical game. The Zimbabweans, coming from two previous defeats, were like wounded lions but Exchequers proved the more committed and tactically superior of the two teams.

Two classic goals from Alfred "MC" Armah, two from Joseph "Olembe" Appiah and Gad Oblittey did the damage for the Ghanaians. In Pool A, the Egyptians are having an easy run over Kisumu Simba of Kenya and UNAM of Namibia.

Police Union and El Sayadeen are certain candidates for the next round of action. Extinguishers of Fire Service have wormed their way into the medal zone of the women's competition. Their first attempt to re-launch their campaign was quite bumpy but they managed to secure a point against defending champions, Telkom of Kenya in a goalless drawn tie on Tuesday.

They had the long awaited big break on Wednesday when pitched against the much inexperienced university lasses of Namibia, UNAM They emerged 3-0 winners. Bronze is a surety for the "untouchable" Extinguishers who are on four points and third in the five team league behind RAU of South Africa and Telkom of Kenya, in that order.