Three teams in championships

Press, 10 September 1987, Page 44

Three teams in championships

The New Zealand Ice Hockey Federation’s Inaugural ice hockey district championships begin at The Big Apple tomorrow evening with only three teams competing. Unlike the club championships held in Christchurch in June, the district competition will be based more on quality ice hockey with the best players from each district — Auckland, Canterbury and Southern Districts — playing for their

area and not their clubs. It will be difficult to ascertain which team is strongest before play starts, this being the only time such a competition has ever been held in New Zealand. Auckland has three separate teams to choose players from, Canterbury has four and Southland six. The Manuwai Warriors (Auckland) won the club championships in June, 10-4, to Canterbury’s

Bruins. Southland entries in the club championships had difficulty keeping up with the more experienced northern players. Most of the New Zealand squad to play in the World ice hockey D pool championships in 1989 comes from Canterbury and Auckland teams so it looks like this week-end’s contest will be resting on the two Canterbury versus Auckland games. The championships are

being run in a double round robin format, each team playing the other two twice. Games start late on Friday and end at 5.15 p.m. on Sunday. The convening of New Zealand’s best hockey players is also serving as a time for the second annual meeting of the N.Z.I.H.F. and a gettogether of the New Zealand team to train and become familiar with one another.