Hockey: Busselton sneak surprise win

Busy Busselton hockey whizkid Nayton Columbera was the flavour of the weekend’s South West Hockey League rounds notching three goals to steer Wests to a shock win over heavyweight Exies in Bunbury on Saturday evening.

With scores lock at 4-all and a draw looming with time running out, the rangy little South West Striker latched onto a pass and used his consummate skills at weave his way through a mesmerised Exies defence to slot the decider just before the final siren.

Alex Bott and Chris Brookes added goals to Columbera’s three in the high-scoring clash to lift last season’s “also-rans” to third place on the SWHL points table ahead of former champions Exies and Marist.

While goalsneak Columbera bagged the goals the architect of the victory was cricket young gun Jacob Evans, polling top votes backed by Giles Spencer-Wright and Tim Ashford while Paul Brandis shone for the Maroons.

Brandis 2, Mark Johnson and Mal Champion were the Maroons on target with evergreen Dwayne Cousens catching the eye.

While Wests were causing a headache for the Maroons Town/South lifted themselves off the bottom of the ladder with the biggest win of the men’s round, a handy 5-1 win over Collie with Damon Harling and Tom Atkinson slotting two goals each against a second half reply from Kevin Crowe.

Another “minnow” making the big guns fight for their spoils were perennial cellar dwellers Margaret River Cavaliers who scored three goals against Marist with Alan Draper, Matt Bycroft and David Read on target.

However, spearheadad by Andrew Blee and youngster Vaughan Schoultz with two goals each the Blues were too strong for the little River men with a 6-3 scoreline.

The weekend started off with a high class 2-all draw in the tussle for top spot between Boyanup and Associates.

Top umpires Andrew Blee and Dwayne Cousens were brought in to blow the big game between last season’s grand finalists, Associates and Boyanup which produced a tight, scoreless second half after an eventful 2-all stalemate at half time.

Promising cricketer Marshall Roberts turned his hand to hockey and copped top votes for his team in the clash together with the vast experience of Steve Green, Shane Baggetta and Kane Wetherell, scorer of both the All Blacks goals against Associates Asher Vukelic and Matt Anderson.