HOCKLEY “NOT GUILTY”

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30531, 28 August 1964, Page 13

HOCKLEY “NOT GUILTY”

The impression given by the radio announcer of the Ranfuriy Shield match between Canterbury and Taranaki that the Canterbury captain, C. R. Hockley, was nearly ordered off was quite incorrect, says the Rugby correspondent of “The Press.”

Some listeners gained the impression that after a ruck the referee, Mr J. G. Pring, was going to order off Hockley but the

Taranaki captain, R. H. Brown, intervened, and

asked for Hockley to be allowed to stay on. What actually happened was that after a fierce ruck near the Taranaki goal-line, in which a Taranaki player, the lock, A. Smith, was hurt, the referee called Hockley over and asked him to restrain his players. He then did the same thing to Brown.

The announcer interpreted this as a warning

to Hockley and that Brown had appealed to the referee. The announcer’s description of the events was quite wrong, particularly so, because from that ruck a penalty was awarded to Taranaki but only after the Taranaki line-umpire had, amazingly, walked on to the field and given his version of the incident to the referee, who immediately penalised Canterbury.