Baptism with fire

By Oscar Pilipili

It was a rude welcome for Daystar University men and women’s teams to Kenya Hockey Union leagues after they lost the matches with huge margins.

It was practically baptism of fire for Daystar women after they went down 22-0 against champions Telkom Orange in a one sided match at City Park Stadium.

Telkom coach Jos Openda played down the big victory against debutants Daystar saying the team was just working out a system for future matches.

"This was just a warm-up match and the huge victory was not in bad faith considering that Daystar is a young and inexperienced team; my players especially new signings were enjoying themselves," he said.

Openda said that although he was satisfied that most of his youngsters got chance to display their worth, it was unfortunate goalkeeper Cynthia Onyango, who was recruited from Lwak High School, was not tested throughout the match.

"Onyango was literally on holiday during the match because Daystar strikers never had a hit at goal," he said.

Youngsters who featured for Telkom include Lucy Wangare, Nancy Wanjue, Sarah Bonareri and Tracy Nungari. Parklands handed Daystar men the same dose after they defeated them 8-0 in a men’s national league tie.

It was a sad weekend for campus students after Kenya Police edged out United States International University-Africa 1-0 in a tight premier league match with winning from Job Ondiro.

Tight match

Meanwhile, it will be a meeting of former national secondary schools champions when Hillcrest play Pangani in girls’ hockey final of Nairobi region on Saturday.

Hillcrest beat Parklands Arya 3-2 during semi-finals at Moi Forces Academy to qualify for the final.

Hillcrest scored through Marina Rozanski, Elsie McDonell and Elleni Stephandu, while Arya replied through Coraxon Anyiso and Sandra Munyasa.

Pangani advanced to the final following their 3-2 victory against Mt Laverna in the semis.

Experienced Tanya Buyu, Samya Ali and Tabitha Wanjiku were on target for Pangani, while Bahati Winnie and Charity Kirui scored for Laverna during closely contested semis.

Despite her team having been eliminated from the Championship, Linda Achieng of Arya is joint top scorer with Buyu on 10 goals up to the semi-finals stage.

With Pangani in the final, Buyu has chance to be crowned Nairobi top scorer because she is the only player on top five scorers who will be in action Saturday.

Charity Kirui of Laverna is third on seven goals; Mary Muasya of St Georges’ has six while Virginia Peria of Moi Nairobi if placed fifth on five.

Nairobi Secondary Schools Sports Association second vice chairman Ken Bunyasi said Nairobi School host their term one championship that features hockey, basketball, netball, decathlon and heptathlon.