Tony Ineson out of hockey

Press, 31 May 1980, Page 16

Tony Ineson out of hockey

By

KEVIN TUTTY

Tony Ineson has struck his last penalty-corner for the New Zealand hockey team unless an alternative test series or tournament can be arranged in the next few months to replace the, Olympic tournament.

It was Ineson who scored from .a penalty-cor-rier seven minutes into the second-half of the Olympic final at Montreal to win New 'Zealand the gold medal.

Ineson said .at the end of this season he will retire from all hockey —• international, provincial and club. He is not available for the Canterbury team to play in the New-mans-AdidaS national tournament in September. The decision to withdraw from the Olympics was not unexpected for Ineson, but his one regret was that the New Zealand team did not have the chance to prove itself.

New Zealand has not had a good international record since it won the gold medal in 1976, but Ineson believes the team that has been working eagerly for the last few months to prepare for Moscow would have performed creditably. Aged 30, he first played for New Zealand at the 1973 World Cup tournament at Amsterdam, He has played in every major tournament since including the 1975 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur and the 1974 International tournament in Christchurch. , The withdrawal of the team from the Olympics did not hasten Ineson’s re-

tirement. He intended to make this his last season. He said he was not interested in carrying on to the Inter-Continental Cup in Kuala Lumpur next March. That is a qualifying tournament for the next World Cup and Ineson said unless he was going to be available for the World Cup in December, 1981, there was little use in being available for Kuala Lumpur. “I’m happy with what I have got out of the sport. I have no real playing ambitions left now.”

Naturally, the highlight

of his career was the Olympic final in 1976. “It wasn’t the best game I have played in but it was a good game to win,” said Ineson.'

It was a satisfying tournament for him. Not only did he score the only goal in the final but he also scored the winning goal in a play-off against Spain which , put New Zealand in the semi-finals and repeated the effort in the semi-final against the Netherlands. Both goals were - scored in sudden death extra-time. The most memorable game for Ineson in terms of team effort was when' New , Zealand beat the Netherlands, at Queen Elizabeth II Park in the first game of the International tournament in 1974. After being down 0-3 in 15 minutes New Zealand eventually won 4-3.

New Zeeland has not beaten Pakistan in an official test match and Ineson would dearly have liked to play the world champions this year. Ineson will still be deeply involved in hockey although he will not be playing. He will be coaching next year and will probably do some umpiring. “I don’t know whether I will coach at senior or schoolboy level. It might be better if I put some time into coaching kids. I have no real ambitions with either coaching or umpiring but think that I could contribute something after I finish playing.”