Surface in demand

Press, 15 May 1987, Page 20

Surface in demand

Canterbury hockey players, and others from outside the province, are taking every opportunity to utilise the new artificial surface at Porritt Park. The surface has been in regular use since it was opened late in February, but during the next three weeks it will be in use more than 10 hours a day for training camps, coaching clinics and national tournaments. This week-end the New Zealand women’s team will gather in Christchurch for its final training week-end before it leaves on June 9 for the Netherlands where it will play in the first women’s Champions tournament in

Amsterdam. The team has several training sessions on the turf including matches against the Harewood men’s team, the Christchurch club champion, and the Canterbury A women’s team. The match against Harewood is at 5 p.m. today, and the game against Canterbury A is at 1.30p.m. on Sunday.

Next week the artificial surface will be used from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for the A.N.Z. national junior women’s tournament which has attracted 18 teams from throughout New Zealand.

At Queen’s Birthday there will be two inter-

provincial men’s tournaments on the surface. On May 28 i the Post Bank Champions tournament starts. It involves Auckland, Canterbury, Wellington, Northland, Wairarapa and a President’s XI. Starting on May 30 will be a quadrangular tournament involving Canterbury B, West Coast, Otago and Nelson. Both tournaments end on June 1. This week the Canterbury Women’s Hockey Association has been running well patronised coaching clinics for secondary school girls.

'Over the next two weeks the surface will be in use for a total of more than 150 hours.