National hockey contest shelved

Press, 25 February 1987, Page 68

National hockey contest shelved

By

KEVIN TUTTY

A poor response from clubs in the upper half of the North Island has forced the New Zealand Women’s Hockey Association to shelve a national inter-club competition. Late last year the association sent circulars to clubs round the country but only 21 indicated they were Interested In the concept, said a member of the association’s publicity committee, Corinne Pritchard. “The number of teams that replied was not

enough to get the competition off the ground. If we had had another 10 interested we might have been able to get it underway. We had a sponsor interested if we had been able to get more than 30 teams.

“It is perhaps not a bad thing because there will be a lot of hockey in the next two seasons building up to the Olympics,” said Ms Pritchard.

She was particularly disappointed in the response from clubs in the Counties, Auckland, North Shore and North-

land regions. Only three clubs had stated their willingness to enter the competition. “There was only one from Auckland and there are 32 clubs here.”

• One senior women’s hockey match will be played on grass each week this season while the other three games will be . played on the new artificial surface at Porritt Park.

An article in “The Press” last Saturday said that half the senior games would be played on grass and half on the new sur-

face at Porritt Park, but the president of the Canterbury Women’s Hockey Association, Mrs Ann Mcßobb, has corrected the earlier statement and said yesterday that each week-end one of four senior games, and two of five senior reserve games, would be played on grass fields.

Mrs Mcßobb said a draft draw was compiled last week-end, but was not yet ready for release.

She said there had been no problem ensuring all teams received the same number of games on grass

and the artificial turf. Mrs Mcßobb said she did not necessarily agree that a team with superior skills could be disadvantaged by playing on a poor grass field. "I think both teams start equal in any game.” Mrs Mcßobb said the women’s association could play only six matches a week-end at Porritt Park, and because it had decided to give senior reserve teams matches on the turf, the draw would necessitate playing a senior game each week on grass.