Another round in old rivalry

Press, 24 July 1987, Page 24

Another round in old rivalry

By

KEVIN TUTTY

For Canterbury people, there is no greater sight in a provincial sporting arena than to watch a confrontation between the established rivals, Canterbury and Auckland.

At Porritt Park on Sunday, Canterbury hockey enthusiasts will have the unique opportunity of experiencing a triple dose of these classic matches over four and a half hours.

In a dual promotion, a first for hockey, the Canterbury men’s A and B teams, and the Canterbury women’s team, will meet their Auckland counterparts. Meetings between these two provinces seldom fail to produce excitement. At both men’s and women’s level, the two provinces have traditionally been at the head of inter-provin-cial rankings.

To the best of the knowledge of present administrators on the Canterbury Women’s Hockey Association, the Auckland team has never travelled to Christchurch for a one-off fixture.

The men have had an annual- fixture for many years? but until this year

the Aucklanders have not looked forward to travelling south for their annual match, and they could not be blamed for their apprehension. July has never been the most suitable month to play hockey on grass in Christchurch, but this season the worry of rain and mud no longer exists with the introduction of the all-weather surface at Porritt Park. It is the surface which has attracted the Auckland women to Christchurch, safe in the knowledge that they will be guaranteed a good surface and a doughty opponent.

Since the introduction of B teams to the national men’s tournament in 1980, the clashes between Canterbury B and Auckland B have become as intense as the A team matches.

The last time they met was in the final of the Newmans Trophy (second section) of the national tournament in Wellington last September. Auckland won that encounter, 3-1, regaining the it lost to Canterbury at the

national tournament in Christchurch the year before.

Auckland has not beaten Canterbury in a women’s match since the national tournament in Napier in 1985, but there has been little between the two teams. Their latest encounter was at the Champions tournament in Whangarei at Queen’s Birthday week-end, when the score was 2-2.

Canterbury, though, won its other four matches at the Champions tournament and the title for the third time in as many years.

Shirley Haig, the Canterbury coach, knows from her many years of playing experience, that Auckland will be a difficult team to suppress even though the Canterbury players have had the benefit of the artificial turf this season. Auckland always has forwards with acceleration and skill, and the Canterbury defence will have to work hard to counter them.

The Canterbury and

Auckland men met only seven weeks ago at Porritt Park in what was the deciding match of the Post Bank Champions tournament. Auckland scored the only goal of the game three minutes from fulltime to maintain a supremacy over Canterbury which it has held for five years. The last time Canterbury beat Auckland was in their annual clash at Porritt Park in 1982. Canterbury went on to win the national championship that season, after Auckland was dumped out in the semi-finals by Wellington.

Incidentally, that loss to

Wellington was the last time Auckland lost an inter-provincial match. Auckland’s string of wins is beginning to create a psychological barrier for Canterbury, but if it is going to break the northerners’ stranglehold, Sunday could be the day.

Canterbury has had the benefit of playing and training on the artificial turf for the whole season, while the Auckland competition in recent weeks has been dogged by wet slow grounds. Auckland, though, has proved before that playing on wet grounds are no handicap and that it can quickly adjust to artificial turf.

Unfortunately the match at the Champions tournament was characterised by tight marking and many errors. That was understandable when the outcome of the tournament hinged on the match.

On Sunday the teams are likely to adopt a more attacking attitude, this being a one-off game, and the quality of the hockey should benefit as altonsequence.