Women’s Hockey Canterbury Teams Yet To Win At N.Z. Tourney

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28371, 2 September 1957, Page 5

Women’s Hockey Canterbury Teams Yet To Win At N.Z. Tourney

The Canterbury A arid B teams have yet to record wins in the New Zealand women’s hockey tournament, which is being held in Ashburton. Although both teams showed improved form, thej’ were beaten in Saturday’s games. Canterbury A was beaten by Otago. 3-1, and the Canterbury B team was beaten by Eastern Southland 3-1 in its morning game and then lost to Auckland Country. 2-1, later in the day. Only two teams remained unbeaten in the major A section: tttey are Auckland Town: and Wellington. In the B section. Taranaki, Maniototo. and Auckland Country are sharing the lead. Auckland Town beat Malvern, 3-1. and had a good win over Wairarapa by six goals to nil. Wellington beat Wairarapa in the morning match, 6-3, and in the afternoon beat the Hawke’s Bay side by five goals to one. Maniototo, Auckland Country, and Taranaki have each won their two matches so far. Twenty-eight games were played on Saturday on the second day of the tournament, with most teams playing two matches during the day. Miss M. Wilkie, the president of the New Zealand Women’s Hockey Association, officially opened the tournament in the afternoon and there was a colourful march past of all the | competing teams. j The games provided good . hockey, particularly in the major ! section of the tournament, and ! matches were played in fine • weather. j Canterbury A v. Otago I Canterbury was beaten by Otago— I last year’s winners—in a good game which was territorially fairly even. ; Canterbury played better than in its I first match but often failed to finish i off attacking moves and so lost scoring opportunities. This was partly caused by lack of care in placing 1 shots and occasional fly hitting by the Canterbury forwards. i Canterbury also found the Otago I defence very sound and in this department B. Hudson at right-back and the goalkeeper and vice-captain . T Foster played very well. Otago made several good attacking moves. For Otago the left inner, M. Donnelly,and M. Davis at right-half played very soundly. The Canterbury goalkeeper, A. Dobson, was one. of the best Canterbury players. Goals were scored for Otago by J. Forrester, M. Donnelly, and E. Brownlee, and for Canterbury by H. Turner. Otago won by 3 goals to 1. B Teams’ Games Eastern Southland’s forwards played well' in the game against Canterbury B and combined better than their opponents. They made several good attacking movements and in these, the right wing, P Forsyth, was outstanding. Eastern Southland gained control towards the end of the game. The goalkeepei played very well for Canterbury and the halves and forwards showed improvement. For Eastern Southland, M. Kerr (2), D. Kerr, and P. Forsyth scored goals. N. Turner scored Canterbury’s goal for the final score to be Eastern Southland 4, Canterbury 81. Canterbury B also showed an improvement in the game with Auck-> land Country but in this mate/* scoring chances were missed by Canterbury forwards. Canterbury's positional play showed an improvement. but towards the end of the game, the forwards showed a ten-

dency to bunch on attack. Auckland Country won by two goals to one.

Minor Section Wanganui, tsush, ano Ashburton are unbeaten in the minor grade, having won all three matches which they nave contested so far. Ashburton again produced the torm shown in its match on the first day of the tournament. It Horowhenua in the morning match by 6 goals to 0, but met much sterner opposition against Nelson later in the day gaining a close win in an exciting game by 3 goals to 2. Horowhenua, after holding Ashburton to a lead by one goal at halftime, failed again in the second half —a repetition of its opening match—and Ashburton went on to score a further five goals. Horowhenua was unlucky not to score on several occasions, many good movements being stopped within a few yards of the Ashburton goalmouth by the Ashburton defence. M. Mac Kay played an excellent game at centre forward for Ashburton, and scored four of her side’s goals. After being down 3-1 at half-time Nelson showed excellent form in the second spell against Ashburton, and took control over the last 10 minutes of play to score a well-deserved goal. Ashburton’s second goal resulted from an excellent movement in which the Nelson goalkeeper was drawn out of goal by right and centre forward moves before the ball was passed to R. Sides at inside left, who had an open goal in which to score.

The young Bush team showed a marked improvement in teamwork to beat Whangarei in an even match by 3 goals to 2, and South Canterbury by 4 goals to 0. E. Walker was outstanding at inside left for Bush in its match against South Canterbury. The South Canterbury goalkeeper played an excellent game to hold out repeated attacks by Bush on its opponents’s goalmouth. South Canterbury lacked good positional play in its match against Poverty Bay, which Poverty Bay won by 2 goals to I—and was inclined to stand off instead of going in to tackle opposing players. The team showed a decided improvement in the second spell. Poverty Bay’s forward line was an extremely fast combination.

Today’s Matches Of interest in today’s matches will be the encounter between Auckland Town and Wellington—the two unbeaten teams in the major section. Canterbury A will meat Hawke’s Can J e £ bu l y B will play Rangitikei, and Eastern Southland, which S?®£ ed the , c ri am Pionship honours with Otago last year, will play Tarawm Ji n th « m i no , r section, Wanganui £ la A Cent £ al A Otago, Bush will nt l and Ashburton will play North Otago. The leading teams to date (two p omts being gained tor a win) are: Major Division A.—Auckland Town, Wellington. 6; Otago 4. Major divisCountry a 4 ranakl ' Manlototo - Auckland Minor Division A.—Wanganui and Ashburton 6, Central Otago and Nelson 4. Minor division B: Bush B Manawatu 5. Poverty Bay and Whangarei 4

Detailed results of matches played on Saturday were:— Major.—Section A: Ctago 3. Hawkes Bay 2; Auckland Town 3 WeHington 6, Wairarapa 3, Wellington 5, Hawke’s Bay r Auckland Town 6, Wairarapa 0: Otago 3. Canterbury A 1. Section B: Auckland Country 2. Marlborough 0- Tara- . «’ 2; Eastern Southland 3, Canterbury B 1; Auckland Canterbury B l; kang"tikei 2, Eastern Southland 2; Maniototo 4, Marlborough 0

Minor.—Section A: Wanganui 5, , West Coast 0; Ashburton 6, HoroLwhenua 0; North Otago 2, Ruahine 1; Nelson 3, Central Otago 2; Horowhenua 3 West Coast 1; Ashburton 3, Nelson 2; Wanganui 1, Ruahine 0 Central Otago 4, North Otago 2 Section B: Southland 7, South Otago 2* Manawatu 4, Buller 1. Bush 3, Whangarei 2: Poverty Bay 2. South Canterbury 1; Manawatu 7. South Otago 1; Poverty Bay 3, Buller 1; Whangarei 4, Southland 2; Bush 4 South Canterbury 0.