HOCKEY FESTIVITIES

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31677, 13 May 1968, Page 2

HOCKEY FESTIVITIES

"The Preet" Special Service AUCKLAND, May 12. Women in New Zealand began playing hockey some years before men took up the game and to celebrate the long life of the sport in New Zealand the Auckland Women’s Hockey Association will celebrate its sixtyfifth anniversary this week. Already 200 women have registered with the reunion committee which will handle the week-end celebrations, and a wide range of social activities— including a past players’ game with very short spells and lots of replacements—are planned. It was in 1900 that a group of women first decided to introduce the game of women’s hockey to Auckland. The teams were Wapiti, University and Kotero and the uniforms for play consisted of ankle-length skirts, ties and blouses and a hat —either a straw boater or a tam-o-shanter cap. The early games were played on what was then the Wapiti Estate on ground that was little more than a paddock and today the hockey teams of St Cuthbert’s College play on the grounds where the pioneers of women's hockey first shouted “Hockey one.” FIRST EFFORTS

In 1906 the game moved to the Market Road Park and efforts were made to form an association. The Only building on the area—then called the “Polo Paddock’’—was a small wooden shed in which

a kerosene heater boiled the kettle for afternoon tea. There were no changing rooms and players hung their coats and clothes on the hedge. Sheep grazing on the paddock were the only form of mowing it ever received. However, with the formation of the association, increased interest in the game was aroused and several new clubs were formed. Since then, even though the area covered by the Auckland association has dwindled, the number of teams has grown from four to 64 and the number of clubs from three to 23. Today a total of 2300 girls (including schoolgirl teams) play hockey in Auckland.

The sixty-fifth anniversary reunion will bring together members and former players from as far south as Dunedin and as far north as Kaikohe. The reunion will begin on Friday with a conversazione for members and their escorts at the Hotel Workers’ Union Hall. On Saturday Melville Park will be the scene of a past players’ game after which afternoon tea will be served. In the evening a cocktail party, followed by dinner, will be held at the Sheraton Lounge and the weekend will conclude with church services at St Mary’s Cathedral and St Patrick’s Cathedral on Sunday.