We're underway! It's 20 degrees and a crowd of about 50 is here to watch the final
An all Mount Hutt College final between good friends Kaleb Small and Christopher Spittall are competing against Edmund Fordyce and Jakob Smith

Based on the standard of play I've seen today, I'm expecting a close match and this could easily go to 3. Fordyce and Smith would have to be the favorites if you were keeping a book, but it's important to remember Spittal and Small beat their opponents in the regional qualifier

Game 1: as we approach h3 its 1-1. Both teams have been pretty conservative and have very similar tactics. Greg is currently doing some filming so we will get this uploaded in the near future

Smith clears partner by accident at h3 and gives Small a chance for a 2-1 lead which he capitalises on

Smith misses a 4y clearance at 4 followed by a Small 2y hoop failure. Looks like the pressure of the final is getting to both teams early

3-1 to Small and Spittal

Small hits a good clearance from 4-5 and Fordyce misses the 14y return. Spittal runs the hoop for a 4-1 lead

Smith takes on an aggressive jump at h6, doesn't get the hoop but clears Oppo out of the way so it's not the end of the title. Small and Spittal now in control at h6

Small runs a good 3y 20 degrees h6 for a 5-1 lead

Fordyce takes good 2y position, isn't cleared and runs 1b off the south boundary. 2-5

Smith misses a 10y clearance and Small misses the hoop completely on a 3y attempt which would have taken them 6-2 up. Will that miss come back to bite them?

Spittall runs a very good 4y hoop and it's 6-2 to the underdogs

Two poor positional shots from Smith and Fordyce have been responded to by two good positional shots from Small and Spittal so they are slight favorites at 3b

Good block from Spittal and a short hoop from Small completes the first game and its a comprehensive 7-2 win for Small and Spittal

Fordyce and Smith will have to improve both their positional play and their shooting if they want to get back into the match. Small and Spittal will now need to keep their composure and continue in the same manner as g1

Game 2

Some great clearances at h1 by both Small and Spittal, but the misses are bound to come eventually and it's a 1-0 lead to Fordyce and Smith

An aggressive h2 miss by Fordyce gives Spittal a comfortable h2 and it's now 1-1

A very good 5y h3 from Small gives him and Spittal a 2-1 lead

Missed clearance or attempt at the hoop? Small runs it from 15 yards and they now have a 3-1 lead

Short h5 with Smith running a comfortable hoop and it's now 3-2

3-3! Spittal takes deep position at 1b

Congratulations to the MHC students who are pointing out my grammatical errors. Your English teacher would be proud

After some good interaction at 1b, Smith ends up in the jaws and after a long range miss he runs it just past the peg in the following sequence. 4-3 Smith and Fordyce

A short miss from Fordyce gives Small and Spittal control at 2b. A long range miss from Smith and a grovel through from Small gives us 4-4

Good interaction at 3b before Small prevails and gives him and Spittal a 5-4 lead

In a neutral position, Smith takes on an aggressive 4b and runs a very good hoop. It's now 5-5

More interaction at penault and Smith ends up running a 1ftr 4yS of rover to give a 6-5 lead in the hope of forcing the decider

A missed return from Fordyce at rover followed by a smooth Spittall hoop ties us up at 6-6 and we're going to 13

You'll have to wait and see the video, but some very high quality play from both sides has resulted in a 7-6 victory and new national champs to Kaleb Small and Christopher Spittal. Well done to all 4 players and we look forward to watching them compete again in future