HOCKEY SEASON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20889, 3 June 1931, Page 14

HOCKEY SEASON.

/DAVIS CUP COMPETITION. NORTH SHORE'S HANDY LEAD. FRIENDLY MATCH WITH NAVY. Tho defeat of St. Luke's by North Shoro in the Auckland Hockey Association's senior competition on Saturday, Jias pldced tho victors well in tho load for the Davis Cup. North Shoro has eight championship points, while Mount Eden and St. Luke's, next in order, have fivo points each. On present indications the relative positions of the three leading teams will quito likely not be altered by next Saturday's gamos. > If past form is adhered to, North Shoro has a good chance of boating Soincrvillo l>y a narow margin, Mount Kdon sconis c'npablo of defeating University, and St. Luke's should be ablo to account for .Wesley, Those games will mark tho conclusion of tho first round. Expectations of a close game botween St. Luke's and North Shoro were disappointed, although tho game was not so one-sidod as tho score of five to one would indicate. St. Luke's, as a matter of fact, held its own through most ol tho gamo and it was only circle play that was responsible for its defeat. Time, after time tho St. Luke's forward linci got away beautifully down the field, only to dally and fumble with the ball when within striking distance. The team has somo splendid young players, and it is. clear that many of tho faults were due. to over-eagerness. This will soon be. remedied, and with a littlo more experience St, Luke's will bo a team to be. •watched very closely. Outstanding Halfback.

' Stuart, tho right-winger, persisted in wandering in to the centre of tho field) and this fault more" than offset the occasional good centres ho sent in. Torbet played a keen game and Brown in the centre did good work everywhere in the field except the circlo. Burnett worked in well with Grace, whose form lias shown consistent improvement this season. Some of his shots from tho wing, and particularly his successful one, were brilliant. He was inclined, however, to travel u little too far down the field before getting rid of tho ball. ' Tho really outstanding game on the field was played by Robertson, the St. Luke's centre half. Always a dependable playor, he gave one of the best exhibitions of his career on Saturday. T. , Clark, j?n tho left, played his usual sound game, stopping well and hitting accur.Brodie, on tho other side, also put up a good performance. Tho two backs, Williams and F. Clark, could be criticised only for a rather dangerous tendency to speculate, especially in view of the state of the grounds. Olsson, in goal, was very disappointing, and ho made two serious errors of tactics, running unjustifiably far out. On the other hand, Rankin, the North /, Shore goalie, played a clover game, although he was rather erratic. Parker and Allan seemed not to watch the direction of their clearing shots sufficiently closely, and to hit almost into the hands of the opponents. The halves also dis- / played this fault to some extent, although not so much as in the preceding game. Clever Forward Tactics.

The forwards had worked out a system of tactics which proved to bo most, successful. The two wings, Monteith

and Reid, played well out in the field, being helped by the added width of the 'new grounds, while the inner men bunched together. This not only enabled full advantage to be taken of the individualists in the team, but also gave the opposing halfbacks a tricky job. ' R., Frater, inside right, played a good game, but seemed to bo not the ideal man to be inside to Monteith, as his pace , -was not great. Penman, the other insider, played a much better gama than usual, and was responsible for at least two fine solo runs. , The first half of the game between Somerville and University was evenly contested and was on the whole a fine exhibition of hockey. In the last quarter, however, Somerville had easily the ad-

, vantage, and thoroughly deserved its win. 1 University was weakened by the absence of Bay, the centre-forward, and Ellison, the left fullback, who were away playing at the university tournament. Considerable reconstruction took place.

in the team in order to fill their places, and, as a consequence, the combination '-was badly affected. Seolen returned to the hockey field to play inside right and Noakes to play left half, but of course they found the pace trying. The Somer-

' ville team played a fast and well- ! co ordinated game. Watts and Hunter were the most outstanding forwards and Cole and Wilmott showed up in the halfline. Both fullbacks were steady. Mount Eden found little difficulty in defeating the Wesley team by three goals /'to nil. Once again failure in tho circle was largely the losing team'a weakness, Wesley's younger membors, among whom may be mentioned Chappell, Slaney and Michel, did more effective work than the olrtor ones, who have not yet regained / the form hoped for. Mount Eden, always a well-balanced team, played well' up to form, individually and in combination. Match Against Navy.

Tho first game to be played this season in the friendly series, so successful last year, between tho Navy and an Auckland team, was played last Friday at the> Stadium, find resulted in a win for Auckland by eight goals to four. The Auck-

land forwards dominated play, but for ,j tlio brilliant goalkceping on both sides.. Nixon for Navy, and Crawley for Auck" land, the score would liavo been much higher, Yicary, the loft back for Navy, showed! great knowledge of the game. All threti halves were prominent, Westmacott being; outstanding. The forwards played a fasti t/pen game and showed good combination. Collett, the centre, worked the lino ad> yantagcously. F. Clark was tho better back for Auckland, while Radcliffo played his usual! steady game in the half-line. Tho forwards worked in unison, E. Watts show-

ing that he had lost nono of his dash, A remarkablo feature was that the inside men, Hunter and Ilayson, scored Auckland's eight goals, each securing' four.