HEROICS and heartache was the flavour of the day at the Far South Coast Hockey Association grand finals on Saturday.
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Grand Hotel was able to claim the day in two grades, while the A grade squad succumbed to the Tathra Babes.
The Tathra Youstabees took on the Grand in the A reserve final to open the senior proceedings.
Early exchanges were level between the two well-versed teams.
Sonya Jessop and Melinda Armstrong were doing plenty of work up front for the Grand Hotel.
However, they had a hard time getting past Tathra’s Judy Rettke and Linda Dodd.
Tathra’s Barb Rodgers was also a gun for the Youstabees working play forward for her team.
Joccoaa Lee was a hard worker on the wing for Grand and was rewarded with the single goal of the match.
However, the credit is a contentious issue for a team-mate who said she got the ball over the line.
The Youstabees mustered some remarkable efforts in the second half, but the Grand stood firm in defence and retained a 1-0 lead until the final siren.
The A grade clash saw underdog Grand Hotel taking on the Tathra Babes.
The Babes have plenty of grand final experience under their belt and it showed on the day.
Al Christison controlled play in the attack for the Babes, while Alana Koellner combined well with her backs to make an impenetrable wall.
Kim Bobbin and Lisa Griffin were hard at work for the Grand, but could not capitalise on opportunities.
Fiona Holmes and Sam Matthews were also kept fairly quiet by their counterparts.
Despite Grand’s best defensive efforts, the Babes were able to push through two goals.
One went to Wendy Hetherington and the second to Al Christison.
Grand was unable to get a shot at goals and the final siren ended the match 2-0.
In the men’s grade, two powerful strikes were enough to secure the Grand Hotel a win over the Magpies 2-1.
Early on in the piece the Grand men used their pace players up front to overwhelm the Magpies’ defence.
In the flurry of activity around the goal box a Magpie accidentally hit the ball off the foot, resulting in a penalty flick.
Stephen Thresher left no doubt, pushing the ball hard to the left corner of the net.
Later in the first half again it was a surge of forward pressure by the Grand that awarded them a corner.
The pass landed at Mark Irvin’s feet, who is renowned for his powerful strikes on the ball.
It proved a bit too quick for the Magpies keeper and the score was 2-0 at the half-time break.
The Magpies rallied their efforts in the second half.
A burst of play around the Grand’s goal box had Magpie Craig Matthews smacking the ball into the next from a waist height swing.
Both teams were a bit more frantic with the game in the balance, but the Grand team held out until the final siren to win 2-1.
In the junior competition, Candelo proved too strong for the opposition.
C grade went Candelo’s way 1-0 over Bega Ag, while the B grade was a 1-0 finish over Tathra.