HOCKEY TOURISTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 8, 9 July 1938, Page 13

HOCKEY TOURISTS

ENGLISH WOMEN'S TEAM

MINISTERIAL RECEPTION

The All-England women's hockey team which arrived in Wellington yesterday and which is playing the Wellingtqn representative team today was received at a Ministerial reception by the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) yesterday. The Deputy Prime Minister (the Hon. P. Fraser), the Minister of Mines (the Hon. P. C. Webb), and the Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. Jones) were also present.

Mr. Parry said that it wascather late in the tour to start welcoming the team, but he wanted to express his pleasure at seeing the players. He apologised for the absence of thf Prime Minister, who, as Parliament was sitting, was in the House. In the games that the team had played, they had acquitted themselves well, and although the New Zealand players did not hope to make great inroads into the English game, they had done well. England was the foremost country in the world in women's hockey, as India was in the men's, he said.

He would like to say that the visit to New Zealand of the team nad given the game a great impetus; the players acted as ambassadors.-from one State of the Empire to another. \ The cori? duct of the team had been exemplary and would do much to further the Government's object of placing sport j on a high plane in New Zealand. , Mr. Fraser said he hoped that the team would have as happy and successful a time as possible. He would. f however, like to see some variation from the monotonous run of wins the team had had. The team was unique in that it represented 2000 clubs in England, and the players had received a great honour to be selected from this number. It was also unique as it was managed by a county councillor and included nine teachers. Miss Warwick, after thanking the previous speakers, said that the team had originally come out to play hockey, and they had had great success in that direction. They had appreciated the welcome they had received everywhere and the interest that had been shown in hockey. Although they had ; defeated all the New Zealand teams in their games she was pleased to state that the Dominion teams'had accepted their losses very well. "We have had such a marvellous time that life is just one whirl of happiness," she remarked amid laughter. She was sorry that so few sports mistresses were present in the schools, and regretted that hockey was not played as much by the girls of New Zealand as it was played in England, but she hoped that the next time that an English team came to New Zealand the schools would have taken up the game wholeheartedly and not treat it as a game too rough for girls. . • In the afternoon the team was entertained at the home of the secretary of the Wellington Women's Hockey Association (Mrs, F. Sundgren) and after the match today the visitors will be given a dinner by the Wellington Association. After the. diriner ; ; they will be the guests of the Technical Old Girls' Hockey Club at a dance, to be held in the Technical College.