SPORTSMAN OF THE WEEK

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27131, 29 August 1953, Page 9

SPORTSMAN OF THE WEEK

JACK MANN Chosen as captain of the South Island hockey representatives which beat North Island in the annual game this year at Auckland, Jack Mann, a physical education officer attached to the Canterbury Education Board has also been a Canterbury hockey representative in 1951-52-53. In the last two years he has been captain, and will lead Canterbury in' the province’s attempt to wrest the New Zealand Challenge Shield from Wellington next Saturday, providing the shield is still in Wellington. Jack Mann might have been a splendid footballer, for although only a light-weight, he showed great promise when he played for Christchurch and Dunedin Training Colleges. His eai'ly schooling was done at Richmond and Shirley intermediate and at both schools he reached the first fifteen and later at Christchurch Technical College he played hockey and also gained a place as centre in the Rugby team, playing outside Ben Couch, Wairarapa and North Island representative and Enoka McDonald who returned from England last year after several seasons of League foot-

ball and recently captained the Otago League team. Which was beaten by Canterbury. At hockey he gained a place in the Canterbury secondary schools representatives. At athletics, too, he was no mean performer for he won the Technical College junior championship in 1939 and the intermediate in 1940 and in the next two years he was runner-up to Enoka McDonald and Jim Oakley in the seniors. In 1943 and 1944 he was at Christchurch Teachers’ College where he earned his hockey Blue and in 1943 he also took his University Blue and represented Canterbury Colts. Next, in 1945, he was at Dunedin and represented Otago in a team in which Wally Hadlee played a prominent part although he did not rise to the same heights in hockey as he did a lew years liter in cricket. In this year Jack Mann earned a triple Blue in Hockey, indoor basketball and tennis when still doing his teacher’s training at Dunedin. From this time on his hockey showed success after success, for he played for the Canterbury University College in 1946 and 1947, Canterbury Colts in 1948, and was captain of the Canterbury B team which surprised everyone by winning the New Zealand tournament at Otago and beating the Canterbury A team by 5 goals to 0. In the two following years he was just not ouite good enough to beat Bill Morris for the position of right-half in the Canterbury team, but in 1951-52-53 he represented the province and in the last two he has led the team. In 1948-50-51-52 he was a New Zealand Uni-

versity representative and in 1951 was captain of the New Zealand Universities team which toured Australia and won nine of the 11 games played including the test. His biggest thrill was experienced when his team was successful in the test against Australia. Game of Skill Hockey he considers a great game for any man to play and especially for those whose physique is not quite rugged enough for the heavier games. It can be recommended as a game of skill, demanding co-ordination in every part, speed, quickness of thought, often calling for split-second decisions, and above everything else team-work. He thinks that any young man who has not experienced the thrill of successfully working in a team and attaining the object of combined effort, has missed something. He has heard and read of the days of gorse sticks and jam tins, when hockey was played in the back street*, but now even the primary school boys must be perfectly rigged out and provided with sticks which the Hockey Association was able to secure at nominal prices. The game haa grown tremendously in the secondary schools and in Canterbury today, Christchurch, Waitaki and West High Schools and Papanui and Christchurch Technical Colleges were all prolific nurseries for recruits to the game, while all the girls’ secondary schools played the game as a major part of their sporting activities. Irrespective of shape, size, or weight of players, hockey could be played well if particular attention were paid to positional play. Hockey in some respects was a big game of chess if plaved well, and positions had to be studied if the shortest way to the goal was to be found. Cultivation of teamspirit without the loss of individual skill, bracketed with a high degree of physical fitness, were essential for good hockey. . In assessing the merits of the best hockey players he has met, Jack Marin says he learnt all he knows from Cyril Walter whose style of play was modelled on that shown by the Indian experts. “He certainly knows hl« hockey and is as much a student of the game as Danie Craven is of Rugby football.” he said. “Hockey is a purely amateur sport and when players are on tour they are expected to pay their own way ’ said Jack Mann who plays on a 16 handicap at go’f and in snort all too modestly describes himself as a “Jack of all trades and master of none.”