THE INDIANS AND HOCKEY

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 129, 3 June 1935, Page 8

THE INDIANS AND HOCKEY

The possibilities of hockey as a game, not only exhilarating to play, but satisfying to watch, have never been fully realised until the advent of the present Indian touring team. It has been customary of late to criticise the influence of publicity on sport, but to do this indiscriminately is to overlook the benefits conferred. From the time of their landing the Indians have had what is called a "good press." Public interest in their prowess has been stimulated by full reports of their "triumphant tour" in which this evervictorious a team is rivalling, with stick and ball, in New Zealand the exploits of our own All Blacks, with the leather oval, in Britain. The consequence was that Athletic Park, the historic scene of many great Rugby contests, generously vacated by the local authorities for the IndiaWellington hockey match, was on Saturday afternoon a two-fold revelation. First there was the astounding spectacle of a crowd, filling all the western bank and a good part of the rest of the accommodation, come to see a game of hockey. 4 Then there was the game itself, in every Way worth while and worthy of the public patronage it had attracted. Most people, of course, had come out of curiosity to see the famous Indians in action. They were not disappointed. This is not the place for word-pictures and superlatives. What the Indians did was to show the enormous difference skill and 'virtuosity make in game from the point of view of the spectator. Hockey is no^ Rugby; it is more like Soccer football. There is none of that grim struggle, that will to win, the desperate effort, the bodily contact, that lend colour even to an otherwise dour and drab Rugby battle. To the impartial observer

hockey is one of those games that must be played well to retain the interest of the spectator. It was here that the Indians succeeded and their infinite versatility presented hockey in a new light. Local players have much to learn from the visitors and the net results cannot but be an improvement in the general standard of hockey throughout New Zealand.