Hockey: Clifton hold their nerve to win Cup

CLIFTON, in their third successive Cup final appearance, finally secured the trophy, but, as in each of their previous appearances, the final went to penalty strokes. After a dismal 1-1 draw the West Country side won the shoot-out 5-4 with goalkeeper Claire Burr saving Slough's last stroke from Ali Burd. So ended Slough's dreams of a unique triple of indoor and outdoor league titles and the Cup.

Handicapped by the absence of five current internationals, Slough elected to play with a defensive format, limiting their attack to a number of lone raids by Lesley Hobley and the overlapping Julie Robertson.

Not surprisingly Clifton, with Lorraine Marsden and Tammy Miller controlling the midfield, quickly took control, opening the scoring in the 17th minute through Juliet Rayden.

Although Slough came more into the game after the interval, it was generally one way traffic towards the Slough goal with goalkeeper Sue Knight making a series of courageous saves.

A complicated switch from only Slough's second corner, after Robertson had been upended by Louise Hipkins, saw Lisa Copeland scoring the equaliser in the 50th minute. Back on the attack, Clifton continued to create opportunities, but they were unable to get past Knight and the game went to penalty strokes.

Slough: S Knight; L Copeland; A Pottow, M Hall, A Wallace; L Cope, S Chandler (capt), A Burd, J Robertson; L Hobley, H Thornalley. Substitutes used: C Cummins, K Brannigan.

Clifton Scottish Life: C Burr; S Brimble; J Martin, M Robertson, J Scullion; T Miller (capt), L Marsden, L Hipkins; L Culliford, D Marston-Smith, J Rayden. Substitute used: E Basterfield.

Umpires: C Thurston, D Prewett.

Results, Digest, page 22