HOCKEY

Southland Times, Issue 19294, 12 July 1924, Page 12

HOCKEY

(Notes by “Circle.”) It is understood that Mr Ashley may be requested to coach and manage the Southland team to take part in this year’s tournament. The motto of all the clubs, except one, should be: “Equal rights to all and preference to none.” Miss Carter, captain of the High School team, will be leaving for Dunedin within the next week or two. Her club mates will be sorry to lose her, as she has been most popular in the school and with the members of the team. Last season Miss Carter gained a place in the Southland representative team, and in all probability would have been selected to play in the trial games this season. Miss E. Ritchie, one of Canterbury’s best known lady hockey players, will be married next week, states the Christchurch Sun. Miss Ritchie commenced playing hockey in 1912 at school, when her team won the championship. Since then she has represented Canterbury for eight seasons. She is well-known to many Southland girls, who will wish her the best of luck. Last Wednesday’s contest between Winton and Collegiate was one worthy of a premiership final and both teams played fine hockey. Each player appeared to be imbued with the determination that her team should win, and the game was keenly contested to the finish. It may have been that several of the players were a little too anxious and once or twice, players who can usually be depended upon, made mistakes which they probably would not have made in a match on which less depended. For the most part, however, the individual play was particularly good, and those who witnessed the match must have been favourably impressed with the material offering for this season’s representative team. As the game ended in a draw Union has again been brought into the competition, the three teams each having an equal number of points to its credit. Collegiate and Winton have been drawn to play each other next Wednesday, and should attract a great deal of interest. The Winton team was at its best against Collegiate, but it is handicapped by its lack of good'scoring forwards, who for the most part did not compare favourably with the Collegiate attacking line. W’hile the country team attacked more frequently than Collegiate, it was noticeable that the Winton goalie, ’ r ss Morton, had to stop more hard shots than the goalie of the opposing team. She made many fine saves, and but for her Winton would have been faced with defeat. Miss M. Horner, at full-back for Winton, played her best game of the season and the Collegiate forwards seldom broke through on her side of the field. On the other hand, Miss R. Burt, Collegiate’s brilliant full-back, did not play up to the top of her game, particularly in the early part of the game, when she missed several speculators. Nevertheless she gave a fine performance and any mistakes she made were quickly covered up. Fortunately Miss Rabbidge played better than usual and Collegiate’s full-back divirion w r as a particularly strong one. Miss Watson also showed up prominently in the Winton halves, and her clean wellplaced passes were of great assistance to her forwards. Taking it all round the hitting of the Winton team was cleaner and more accurate than that of the Collegiate players. In the first few minutes of play the Collegiate team gave the impression that it was a winning team and its first goal was the result of a very pretty movement, which gave the Winton backs no chance to stop. Miss Wilson’s shot at goal came from an acute angle, but the ball shot into the net at such a speed that the goalie had little prospect of stopping it. During the remainder of the game, however, the Collegiate team did not play so well as it did a week or two before. This may be attributed to over anxiety. Union will be interested in the result of next Wednesday’s game, but whichever team it meets, it will make a close game of it. WHERE ARE THEY? A little discussion between a member and the President took place at Tuesday night’s meeting of the “Collegiate” Hockey Association, the object of which was obviously to create the impression that the Association was really in a satisfactory position in regard to the number of competent referees at its disposal. Anyone acquainted with the true position was not likely to be impressed with this little by-play and the obvious retort is, where are they? If the Association has so many to choose from it has shown a surprising lack of discretion in the appointment of referees for recent matches. No fault can be found with the impartial rulings of the two referees who controlled the Collegiate v. Winton fixture, but apart from the matches in which either of these two take the whistle, a surprising lack of knowledge has been displayed by the referees. It was unfortunate that there

were not 4nore present to see the High School v. Rosedale match on Saturday last, as they would have been provided with an excellent example of what might be expected if some members of the Association are allowed to persist in the childish policy of unfairly criticising referees, when their own knowledge of the game is extremely limited. “COACH” AND MANAGER. It was in some respects unfortunate that the match between Collegiate and Winton on Wednesday last ended in a draw, as the competition will be unduly prolonged owing to the fact that three teams are now equal. At least two and possibly three weeks will be required to decide the premiership. After that at least one trial game will have to be played before the town team is selected to play the Western • District. This will mean that the final selection of the Southland team cannot be made until well on in August, so that very little time will remain in which to coach the team, before it leaves for the tournament. The selectors have any number of good individual players from which to choose, but to mould them into a team which will uphold the record which Southland has established during the last three or four seasons, will require the knowledge and instruction of an expert. The most satisfactory arrangement is that the one who coaches the team should also accompany it on tour as manager, providing always that he is competent. If he could be induced to accept the position, Mr A. Kidd would be an ideal man for the position. His ability as a coach has been clearly demonstrated by the great record the Southland girls hold in this particular branch of sport. The Association should make an endeavour to secure his services, preferably for both positions. The necessity for appointing a manager, who has a wide experience of the game, should readily be appreciated, because so much depends upon the style of play adopted by opposing teams as to which is the most effective method to adopt. At the tournament managers of the various teams are called on to referee, and for that reason alone it is important that a man with a practical knowledge of the rules should be choisen. EASTERN DISTRICT MATCHES. High School met Mataura at Gore on Wednesday afternoon. The game was interesting, though rather one-sided. The result was High School 11 goals, Mat aura 0. The half-time score was s—o.5 —0. Mr H. H. F. Grant was referee. THE TOURNAMENT. Contrary to expectations the annual tournament is to be held at Nelson this season. Two applications were forward from the South Island, one from Nelson and the other from South Canterbury, while the only North Island Association to make application was Poverty Bay. The result of the ballot seems to suggest that the delegates from several of the North Island Associations cast their votes in favour of Nelson, and in this they may have been influenced by the fact that it is not long since the tournament was held in Poverty Bay. Nelson is a particularly strong hockey centre, and the conditions there should be much more satisfactory to the Southland girls than they would be in Gisborne. In addition to that there is the probability that the Poverty Bay team will be one of the strongest teams competing and it is better that Southland should meet it on a neutral ground, rather than in its own centre. It may be expected that this year’s fixture will produce some fine hockey, and also that the good people of Nelson will do their best to make the visit of players from other centres a happy one.