Lack of tour cash a blessing for hockey champions

Press, 5 August 1976, Page 30

Lack of tour cash a blessing for hockey champions

The lack of finance which forced the New Zealand Hockey Association to cancel a pre-Olympic tour of Europe appears to have been a blessing in disguise for the Olympic champions.

The coach of the New Zealand team, Mr Ross Gillespie, said yesterday the 10 days the team spent in Toronto before the Olympics was preferable to a European tour.

Mr Gillespie, who arrived in Christchurch yesterday with the seven Canterbury members of the team, said that by staying in Toronto and training twice a day on the artificial Astro-turf — the same surface used for the Olympic tournament at Montreal — the team was better off than it would have been if it had toured Europe. “If we had gone to Europe we would have had to play on grass surfaces in many places, and coupled to that, travelling and living out of a suitcase can be very tiring. “The 10 days we spent in Toronto, with the help of Klipper Ties, who sponsored that part .of the tour, were well worth while. The university where we stayed had a great set up and we were abie to train at our leisure, and play matches, so we had a good feel of the surface before we got to Montreal.” Talking about the Olympic tournament, Mr Gillespie felt the vital game for New Zealand was the one which Spain lost to Belgium which put the Kiwis into the playoff for a semi-final position.

“There is good and bad luck in any hockey tournament, but it is still the most consistent team over the tournament that comes out on top. We had a consistent team with no real stars, and we continued to improve with each game.” “We hadn’t been very Convincing up until the play-off against Spain, but in that match we played better as the match progressed and things started to fall into place.

"When we knew we had to play Holland in the semi-final rather than Australia, we were pleased, and we were even more pleased when we knew we would play Australia in the final.

“We thought we would have struggled against Pakistan, and we also knew that through the tournament no team had been able to put two good performances together, so after Australia beat Pakistan in the semifinal we gave ourselves a reasonable chance of winning.” The African boycott of the Olympics had not had an effect on the team, Mr Gillespie said. Although it had been a big issue in Montreal, he felt it was probably a bigger issue in New Zealand,

The team had some contact with the Kenyan side,

which was in New Zealand’s pool, but which had to pull out at the order of its Government.

“We spoke to them, but they didn’t have any grudges against us. They were extremely disappointed at having to withdraw after building up to the Games over a period of many months, but they accepted they had to return home.”

Tony Ineson, the captain, said that after the Africans began withdrawing, the New Zealanders did not feel too free about wearing their uniforms around the village, but there had been no threats or malice from the teams re-

maining. “We realised that it could have been us who were sent home and not the Africans.”

Mr Gillespie who also coached New Zealand at the Munich Olympics, felt the Games were becoming too big and he could see the day when they would be superceded by world championships for the individual sports.

Added to that, security was a tremendous problem. "When you have to wear this around your neck (holding out the official identification tag that all athletes had to wear) whether you are going for a meal or whatever, it becomes a bit ridiculous.”