Canterbury’s gun goalies

Press, 6 May 1980, Page 1

Canterbury’s gun goalies

By

KEVIN TUTTY

Canterbury’s two Olympic hockey goal-keepers, Lesley Shankland and Graeme Sligo, are being fired at regularly by a “bazooka.” But it is all in the cause of preparation for Moscow, or whatever tournament may be held as an alternative if there is an Olympic boycott. With the help of fellow Olympic, team members,

the pair spend two evenings a week at Hagley Park facing a barrage of shots from a distance of about 10 metres, to improve their reflexes and footwork. The “bazooka” was firing tennis balls last evening with the speed of a Roscoe Tanner serve, but a thoughtful Sligo was not sure that it was fast enough. “The pressure is a bit low. I think we will have to boost it from 60 pounds (per square inch) to 70.” He added, with a touch of envy, that his fellow

New Zealand goal-keeper in Auckland, Maurice Marquet, had hockey balls fired at him from a sister machine. It was Marquet who arranged for the Canterbury pair to have the use of the machine. He has used one for two months, and is convinced of its value, so when Sligo returned from a coaching school in Auck-

land last Easter his prize possession was the “bazooka.”

Produced by an Auckland firm, which hopes to market it commercially, the machine is made of plastic piping. A Christchurch firm, Atlas Copco, has given the players the use of a compressor to drive the machine which is aimed manually. Both goal-keepers are convinced of the machine’s v..lue and hope that it can be used regularly for a few weeks before an important national or international tournament, if not at club practices.

Tony Ineson and Selwyn Maister, two defenders in the men’s Olympic team, have also found the “bazooka” useful for improving their reflexes. They stand on either goal-post stopping the few balls that pass the goal-keepers. It was fortunate that the machine was not being fed hockey balls last evening. One tennis ball caught Maister on the fingers with enough force to make him wring his hand in pain.