Easy hockey draw for Canterbury

Press, 6 July 1977, Page 42

Easy hockey draw for Canterbury

Bv

KEVIN TUTTY

Canterbury should be a comfortable' winner of its pool at the Rothmans national hockey tournament in Wanganui from August 21 to 27.

Pools for the tournament were announced by the New Zealand Hockey Association yesterday, and Wellington looks the only opponent of note in Canterbury’s section. Manawatu, Wanganui and Wairarapa are the others. Already this season Canterbury has beaten Wellington twice. In the first game Cante-bury won 2-0 in die Trans Tours quadrangular tournament, and 10 days ago it won 5-1 at Wellington.

Canterbury has also played Manawatu and Wairarapa, beating them 6-0 and 9-0 respectively. It has not played the home side, Wanganui, but must be favoured to beat it in the first game. The pool draw favours Canterbury. After the first match with Wanganui it has a bye and its remaining games in order are against Wairarapa, Manawatu and Wellington. In pool A, last year’s champion, Auckland, is the outstanding side, but that was the case last year at Nelson, and Auckland finished second in its pool, losing to Northland in the final pool match. Canterbury and Auckland then met in a semi-final which Auckland won 2-0. Canterbury, and doubtless many spectators, will hope Auckland wins its pool this year so that the top two teams will meet in the final.

There are 28 teams in the tournament divided into three sections. The premier section for the Challenge Shield contains 10 teams; the Rothmans Cup section eight teams; and the India Plate 10 teams. Pools for the three sections are:

Challenge Shield. — Pool A; Auckland, Northland, Otago Nelson, Hawke’s Bay. Pool B: Wellington, Canterbury, Manawatu, Wanganui, Wairarapa.

Rothmans Cup.— Pool A: South Canterbury, Ashburton, Hutt Valley, Horowhenua. Pool B: Hamilton, North Otago, Taranaki, Tauranga. India Plate.— Pool A: Piako, Poverty Bay, Marlborough, Rotorua, Central King Country. Pool B: West Coast, New Zealand Army, R.N.Z.A.F., Southland, Wanganui.

Pools for -the Hatch Cup tournament in Christchurch from August 29 to September 2 have been announced. Canterbury is in pool A with Wairarapa, Manawatu,

[Marlborough, Hawke’s Bay, West Coast and Central Hawke’s Bay. Teams will play two games on most days before pool play-offs on Thursday afternoon. The final and grading games will be on Friday morning, and the annual North Island-South Island match on Friday afternoon.

The tournament will end on Saturday morning with a match between the New Zealand Hatch Cup team and the Queensland schoolboy side which will be touring New Zealand at that time. Pools for the tournament are:

Pool A: Canterbury, Wairarapa, Manawatu, Marlborough, Hawke’s Bay, West Coast, Central Hawke s Bay. Pool B: Taranaki, Ashburton, Poverty Bay, Otago, North Otago, Nelson, Franklin.

Pool C: Auckland, Wellington, Northland, South Canterbury, Wanganui, Horowhenua.