v A few days ago I witnessed a hockey match. It was the final match
in the x-y-z. Hockey Tournament played on the knock out system. The venue was
the Lahore Hockey Stadium.
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v The teams the Ravines and the Civilians were well balanced. As was
natural, both had beaten a number of prominent sides before having the
privilege of meeting each other to decide the winners and the runners-up.
v
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v
At 5 p.m. sharp, the rival captains led their teams on to the
field. While the other players warmed up, hitting, stopping, or dribbling the
ball, on opposite sides of the field, the captains walked up to the two umpires
in the centre of the field, for the toss. The outstation team lost the toss. The
Ravines, therefore took the side of their own choice, for the first half of the
match.
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v Right from the bully-off, the ball was controlled by the Ravines.
Their forwards passed it to one another, foiling all attempts by the Civilians
to retrieve it. The pace of attack grew hotter, and stiffness of defense become
more intense, as the ball approached the striking -circle before the Civilians
goal. At one stage, the center forward of the Ravines was about to hit the ball
for what would have been a certain goal, when a fullback of the defenders took
it out of his reach, and hit it so hard that it could not be stopped until it had reached one of his own
forwards. This sent all the Ravines running to their own half of the field in
order to stop the Civilians from scoring against them. From now on, much of the
time until the breather, the ball remained in the Ravines half. They however
put up stiff resistance and did not allow their rivals to test their goalkeeper
even once.
v
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v After half time the Civilians made a lightning raid at the Ravines
goal, and within a minute of the resumption, were leading by one goal to nil.
This infuriated the Ravines, and they went all out to score the equalizer after
a number of well planned moves, on their part, they were rewarded with a goal.(Essayinenglishforfree.blogspot.com)
It was made by their outside right with such a powerful hit that the ball
rattled the board and shook the goal-posts for quite a few seconds.
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v Only a quarter of an hour was now left for the match to end,
unless over time had to be awarded. The game became very fast now both sides
appearing to be determined to win. Two minutes from the time, the centre
forward of the 'Civilians' dribbled the ball into the '0' of the home-side, and
had only the Goalie to beat, when intentionally or accidentally, a defender
knocked into him. For obstruction, a penalty corner was awarded against the
Ravines. A full back of the Civilians, a giant of man, hit the ball so hard
that hardly anybody saw it until it had hit the board with a thud.
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v With less than two minutes of play left there was little
possibility of the Ravines equalizing the Score. Though they fought hard to the
end, the final whistle gave the victory to the Civilians. Their supporters
cheered them lustily, while the home crowd was rather disappointed. They felt
as supporters of losers often do, that the better side had not won.
v
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