HOCKEY NOTES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 189, 15 July 1925, Page 13

HOCKEY NOTES.

(By “Half Back.”) The failure of the members to turn outto practice will very probably have the effect of changihg the personnel of the local team before the trip to Christchurch, if it eventuates. It was stated at the meeting of the association on Monday night that the coach has been in the habit of getting up at 4 a.m. to motor from Feilding to Palmerston North only to find on arrival that the majority of the team were missing. Players should make an effort to attend out of courtesy to the coach, if for mo other reason. The late Mr Harvey was a well-known hockey enthusiast and his death will be much regretted by the exponents of the game. In ladies’ hockey especially he took a keen interest. On Wednesdays his familiar figure was to be seen at the Sportsground. He was always willing to devote his half-holiday to the interests of the game and as a referee his decisions were always respected. A member of the United Club he was also a Manawatu representative. A good sport, his demise is sincerely regretted. AN ANCIENT GAME.

A correspondent in an English hockey journal, following up the supposition that the game originally started in Persia, asks if Omar Khayyam does not mention hockey in his Rubaiyat. A negative reply, however, is given by the writer of the historical series on the games which brought about the argument,, and it is evident that the great poet was referring to polo, which was a popular pastime in his day. Omar was born about the eleventh century of our time, but the 1922 excavation in Athens of the mural tablet, portraying some Grecian boys engaged in a sort of hockey bully, proved tlmt a kind of stick game was followed by the Ancient Greeks at least 15C0 years before Omar’s time. That the ancient Persians also played some kind of stick game other than polo is pretty clear. Polo is Persian born and bred, and records show that it was played by them thousands of years ago. I am quite convinced, states the writer, that a kind of stick game was played in Persia, in Greece, and in Rome two thousand years ago. As I have shown this season, the North and South American Indians also play a type of stick sport, and probably played it for a much longer period. It is useless to regard mere nomenclature —the local name of any game has varied through the ages. A professor of history, who is also a keen Egyptologist had in his possession some stone balls, a little smaller than a cricket ball, which were used by the Anciont Egyptians, though the actual kind of game for which these stone balls were used is not known. All such evidence has apparently been lost in the dust of time. WELLINGTON TOURNAMENT. The Wellington Hockey Association has made extensive preparations for the tournament to .be held on the Basin Reserve from Ist to 6th August inclusive. Four teams from other centres will be in Wellington for the tournament-, and plans for their welfare and entertainment while there have been very carefully considered by a special committee set up by the local association for the purpose. The following draw, suggested by the -New Zealand Hockey Association for the first round of the tournament, has been approved of by the local association: Wellington A v. Auckland; Wellington B v. Nelson; Canterbury and Otago to meet later. The New Zealand Hockey Association suggested to the Wellington Association that the tournament be conducted on the “double knock-out” principle; that is »that as far as possible winning teams play against winning teams and losing teams play against losing teams. When a team has been defeated twice it drops out of the tournament as far as tournament points are concerned, though, of course, if a team lost two games and remained on in W’ellington it would be able to play a “friendly” game with the next team to drop out. The proposal was discussed at the w'eekly meeting of the Management Committee of the W.H.A. on Monday evening, w'hon it was unanimously decided to agree to the system being adopted for the tournament. A girl Brownlie incident happened in the Wesley and Tiki A match recently (says a Wanganui writer). The Tiki captain, the quietest player, and the only one allowed to check her team, was ordered off the field of play. It is the first time in the history of New Zealand ladies’ hockey that the captain has been ordered off the field of play. It is understood the Tiki A captain will most likely retire after the incident and take on some other winter sport for a change. ■ Hockey is gaining a foothold on the Continent. A big tournament was to have been held at Geneva at Easter, w ith the following countries competing France, Belgium. Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Czecho-Slovakiaj Hungary, India, and Turkey. It was considered that the tournament wiould give hockey a great lift in these countries. His Excellency the Governor-General, Sir Charles Fergusson, has accepted the office of patron of the New Zealand Hockey Association. At a recent meeting of the N.Z.11.A. a letter was received from the Taranaki Hockey Association, advising that after three years, it had been reformed. Taranaki was formerly a stronghold of hockey, and its entry once more into Dominion hockey will be pleasing to all supporters of the game. . . The Wellington Hiockev Association has been requested by the New Zealand Association to nominate one referee for the test match, Australia v. New Zealand, to be played on the Basin Reserve on Bth August? Otaki Maori ladies and Wellington ladies and primary schoolboys will provide curtain-raisers to the big match.