Security drove men to drink

Press, 5 August 1976, Page 30

Security drove men to drink

The tight security arrangements at the Olympics, rather than the New Zealand hockey team’s breakneck desire to celebrate its gold medal win, resulted in its missing the after-match press conference.

The team was given "the hell-bent-for-leather” nonaward of the Games by an Associated Press writer for skipping the conference and heading for the nearest pub. The team coach, Mr Ross Gillespie, explained the reasons for missing the conference when he returned to Christchurch yesterday. After the match he headed for the press and television centre at the McGill University Stadium where the final was played. But at the entrance to the centre he was met by two armed guards who would not allow him past. "The media had requested two or three of us at the media centre, and one television corporation wanted the whole team to go into Montreal for a studio interview.

“When we could not get past the guards we went back to our dressing room and decided at that stage it was not worth getting shot for the sake of an interview, and if we had got on the bus to go into Montreal it would have been an hour’s ride, which the boys were understandably not happy about.

“We decided instead to nip round the comer to the nearest pub.”