COMPLAINT ABOUT HOCKEY TEAM

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28929, 24 June 1959, Page 17

COMPLAINT ABOUT HOCKEY TEAM

School Coach Meets Club Committee

The committee of the Woolston Hockey Club has met Mr A. E. L. Britton, coach of the Linwood High School’s first hockey eleven, in a discussion of a match between the school and the club’s second grade A team. Mr Britton, in a letter to the Canterbury Hockey Association’s management committee, alleged that some members of the Woolston team had been guilty of rough and foul play.

After the discussion between the club committee and Mr Britton, a statement made by Mr Britton, and accepted by the committee, was released for publication by the club’s secretary (Mr L. R. Hobson). It said: “Having met the Woolston Hockey Club committee in a full and frank discussion I am satisfied in my own mind that the club is doing everything in its power to stamp out any signs of rough play in its junior grades. This attitude shows that the Woolston club certainly does not condone any instances of rough play which are brought to its notice.”

Mr Hobson also said that a member of the committee, Mr D. Coulter, had stated a wish to withdraw a statement at the Hockey Association meeting in which he said that Mr Britton had complained only because his team had been beaten.