Heat and noise major hurdles

Press, 18 July 1979, Page 25

Heat and noise major hurdles

By

RAY CAIRNS

The world’s other top netballing nations — England, Australia and the host, Trinidad and Tobago —certainly loom as formidable obstacles to New Zealand’s bid to win the world netball title next month. But in the eyes of Lyn Parker, the team’s captain, there are several factors in the way of New Zealand improving on its third placing three years ago. “The single most difficult feature is the climatic conditions. Certainly, we will be in Jamaica two weeks and meant to be acclimatising; but we are still going to a place entirely different from a New Zealand winter, and where humidity will be the greatest playerproblem but one we must try to overcome.” Parker said there was an original feeling among the medical profession that the team should try to simulate the Trinidadian conditions, ‘‘but the final decision was that we should go to the area early.” An. experienced tourist now—she has been a national representative since 1972 —Parker was quick to point to general travel and food problems. “We are not quite sure what to expect in the way of accommodation, and there is the general hassle, something we don’t face in New Zealand, of getting from A to B.”

And the new national stadium in Trinidad will pose several problems. According to Parker, the four courts are flanked by stands capable- of seating 60,000, and further by a moat, and by perimeter fences. “These will increase the court heat to a very high degree, and with the Trinidadians crazy on sport at the top level, the crowd noise could be something unbearable. “I played before 8000 at Wembley, indoors, and that sort of noise was very awkward. You could not communicate with other players or talk to the umpire. “All these are unknown and, to us, unusual qualities, but every team has to face them; you have to think them out, and decide how to cope with different situations.” The positive approach is the key to Parker and this relatively young team; though, conversely, five of the team have previously contested the international tournament. “We are going with the positive approach, that we are going to win. There is no reason why we should not win; we are the only team to have beaten Trinidad and Tobago since the last tournament. I think

we have as much chance as any team of winning the tournament. Certainly we respect the rest, but equally certain, we are not frightened of them.” Parker decided a comparison with the thirdplaced New Zealand team of three years ago to be unfair: “we are going to completely different conditions and it will be a completely different tournament. “We don’t have as much experience as that team, in internationals generally, but we have more versatility. The great majority of the players can cover a second position very nearly as well as their principal positions.” The unity of this year’s team is its greatest strength, according to its captain: “probably the best of any I have been in, perhaps as a result of a lot of them not having been in the side for all that long — we are all in much the same boat. Our whole approach is that everyone gives 150 per cent; it is the only way we can win this tournament.” The very “newness” of the national team will be its strength in the forseeable future, too. “We have such a lot of young players that there is unlikely to be a high dropout rate. For myself, I just take it as it comes,”