HOCKEY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 6 September 1913, Page 11

HOCKEY.

(By " Enthusiast.")

Next week "Enthusiast" hopes to be able to give a lew notes as regards the final game Hawera A v. Stratford. The local men have mustered a good sound team, and have been doing some useful practice. lam sure all lovers of hockey, would only be too pleased to see the shield come back to Hawera for the year. Good luck to our local boys ; may they make a tine showing! Of late bad. luck seems to have clung to them, first by losing their club captain; then Mr McDougall, rightharf, leaving the town. .but with a good day they will be a hard team to beat, thanks to the selectors.

The ladies' team is improving wonderfully. On Wednesday they will journey to Manaia, where a good game should be witnessed. The forwards are very strong, and a good scoring line, while the backs have been strengthened, especially the half line. Some early morning practices have been held; and "Enthusiast" thinks they are now on the winning list. Members of the men's club are to be complimented on spending every spare minute coaching the ladies on. I hear entries are now coming in for the proposed tourney to be held on September 10. This is a move in the right direction, and the promoters must be congratulated on trying to push the game for ladies ahead. One can only say our local ladies deserve a word of praise in sticking to the sport, considering their bad luck against Manaia and Patea. "Enthusiast" considers this the very best way to make hockey a success. Better luck in the future, ladies! Most likely a return match with Patea will yet be played, and then it is decided to present the gold medals to the most improved forward and. back. "Enthusiast" is doing his best to award the medals on merit.

Regarding the invitation extended to the New South Wales Ladies' Association by the New Zealand Ladies' Hockey Association, word has been received that they will be unable to make the trip to New Zealand. In doing so they regret being unable to comply with the request, and invite New Zealand to send a team to Sydney next year to take part in the All Australian "Women's. Hockey Association tourney, to be held in August. "While the making of the trip may seen at first glance to be improbable, it behoves the New Zealand executive to give the matter their full consideration before deciding for or against the proposal.

After due consideration, 'Wellington has found it impossible to comply wit-h the New.Zealand Association's request for a £100 guarantee in connectio 1 v- -th the tour of a British team to the Dominion. It has therefore requested the parent^ body to reduce the guarantee to £75, an amount which secins large eiiough. It now appears certain that the tour will eventuate, and the Nt,w Zealand Association is to be congratulated on its enterprise. One or two conditions made by the parent body are not altogether to the liking of the ■Wellington Association, and it Ls very probable ihat certain modifications will be mado.

Hockey is a game which has taken a great hold ia New Zealand of '-eoe-it years, and one has only to look thro i%h the daily papers to verify this. There 'is seldom a day passes but some item of interest to the hockey player is inserted. A Wellington writer claims that next to Rugby football it is the :nosfc popular game played in the Dominion. It is essentially a,young man's game, but an active middle-aged man is.often, to ie seen playing a good safe game in the back line. . '. "