LADIES’ HOCKEY

Southland Times, Issue 20539, 16 July 1928, Page 9

LADIES’ HOCKEY

TOWN MEETS SOUTHERN. SOLID BUT NOT SPECTACULAR PLAY. All town hockey fixtures were postponed on Saturday afternoon to enable a representative team picked from all the town clubs to meet a Southern Sub-Association team at Fortrose. The match resulted in a win for the town team by seven goals to one. The ground was fairly dry, but in a rather uneven and rough condition. The play generally was not of a brilliant nature, although in the second half the town forwards made some wonderful passing rushes. As in the Town-Western match on Wednesday the country team was found to possess a splendid goal-keeper and it will be interesting to everyone to see both Mrs Cantrick and Mrs Wardle in action in the Southern-Westera match next Saturday. Mrs Gilman and Miss Horner worked well together and produced good results; Miss Melvin was not up to her usual form although at times her work was brilliant. In the Southern team, Misses Stirling and Dickson distinguished themselves as halfbacks and Misses A. and F. McKenzie in the forward line. The following were the teams:— Town: Misses D. Hawke; B. Muir, J. Burt; N. Thomas, P. Guest (captain), M. Watson; H. Horner, Mrs Gilman, Misses M. Hislop, I. Stewart, M. Clark. Southern: Mrs Wardle; Miss L. Shirley, Mrs McLeod; Misses C. Stirling, G. Dixon, I. White; A. McKenzie, J. Coster, F. McKenzie, G. Blair, N. White. Both sides began willingly, but Town had the play in their own hands the first five minutes when Miss Horner got control of the ball and carried it to Southern’s twentyfive line where the play centred for some time. Miss Hislop, receiving from Mrs Gilman, made a strong shot in the circle, but Mrs Wardle saved well. Again, from the bully-off, Miss Horner got her stick under the ball and then followed up to the circle where she shot unsuccessfully. The game continued thus for some minutes, with Town pressing the whole time. Most of the time defence was carried back to the last line, and had it not been for the great work of Southern goal-keeper the score would have been much greater than it turned out to be. Miss Melvin was prominent in this attack and shot without success several times. Southern rallied in good style and Misses Dixon and F. McKenzie showed up well. After Miss A. McKenzie had made an unsuccessful shot from the ensuing bully off, Miss N. Thomas carried the ball on past opposition as far as Southern’s twentyfive where she passed to Mrs Gilman who carried the ball into the circle, but a wonderful hard shot was stopped by the goal-keeper. Play continued to centre round Southern’s posts, but Mrs McLeod and Miss Stirling in particular carried on very good defence work. After several minutes of willing play, Mrs Gilman wrested the ball from Miss Blair and after carrying it along several yards, passed to Miss Horner who shot high into the air, the ball falling down and between the posts. Town 1. Southern 0. Shortly after this, Miss F. McKenzie commenced a solo rush near the half-way line, but after a brilliant dash was stopped by Miss J. Burt who hit hard away. Miss M. Clark followed up and carried play into the circle. Frenzied defence work bv Southern followed, but finally from a close scramble Mrs Gilman got the ball clear from the ruck and passed out to Miss Stewart who shot well from a rather difficult position and scored, making Town’s score two against Southern’s nil. A few minutes before half-time, from a free hit for obstruction shot by Mrs McLeod, Miss F. McKenzie made a wonderful solo rush and scored. Town 2, Southern 1.

From the beginning of the second spell, Town pressed and a few minutes after the commencement, Miss Horner, from rather ragged play near Southern twenty-five, passed out to Miss I. Stewart who carried the ball into the circle, shot well and scored. Town 3, Southern 1. Town now began to take matters into their own hands and shortly afterwards, Miss Clark initiated a forward rush and passed to Miss Melvin near the twenty-five line. Southern’s defence now closed round, but from the melee, Miss Melvin secured and shot hard making the score. Town 4, Southern 1. From a bullyoff. Town forwards slowly carried play from point to point until they had reached the final line of Southern’s defence. After several minutes’ frenzied defence, Miss Melvin shot from an open position and scored. The play now became very willing, but Town still kept control and a few minutes later. Miss Melvin again scored, making the total Town 6, Southern 1. Miss Dixon now’ shone in some good attacking tactics adopted by Southern, but Misses Muir and Burt saved the situation and gradually play worked down towards the other end where a tense tussle took place right inside the circle. At last the ball rested practically on the line and Miss Horner gave it the last hit and scored. Southern now showed the best form of the whole game and Misses F. McKenzie, Blair and White made an apparently unbreakable rush. However, Miss N. Thomas wrested the ball cleverly from Miss Blair and no further score was made when the whistle blew. The Rev. E. G. Evans and Mr E. H. Battin refereed the game. At the conclusion of the game, the visitors were entertained to tea by the Fortrose players. The Rev. E. G. Evans expressed the appreciation of the Southern team for the visit and Mr P. Gilfedder. the president of the Southland Association replied on behalf of the visitors. He looked forward to even greater co-operation between the sub-associations and the mother association. He wanted them all to look on the Southland touring team as their own as much as the town’s and drew attention to the Princess Carnival inaugurated amongst all the clubs in the Southland province, whereby funds for touring were to be gained. Mr R. J. Surgenor spoke in congratulatory terms of the play of Southern and prophesied the inclusion of some of its members either this year or next in the representative Southland team. SCHOOL HOCKEY. TWO INTERESTING GAMES. The school hockey competition was advanced another round on Saturday morning when Middle defeated South A and Kapuka overcame South B. The ground was very sloppy and large puddles of water near the eastern goals made play unpleasant. In the first match, both sides were well matched although South was playing two short. The play generally was ragged, but most of the faults were attributable to the condition of the ground. The teams were as follows: Middle: Misses E. Prout; I. Dopson, A. Cameron; T. Barr, A. Ward, H. Woollett; D. I. Airey, O. Strang, P. Wilson and M. Troon. South A: Misses B. Adamson; L. Hunter, H. Stewart; M. Laws, C. Smith; M. McKinlay, I. Hefford, R. Insall and V. Sim. In the first the backs of both sides were the leading factors of the game and as a consequence play became rather of the “stonewalling” type. However, before half time Madge Troon succeeded in getting across the line for Middle. In the second half, Miss P. Wilson made several good attacks, but in every case she was unsuccessful in her shooting at the last stage. The play remained most of the time under Middle’s control and Miss D. Gray did some good work at times. The half-time score was unchanged at the final whistle. Mr E. H. Batten controlled the game. In the Kapuka-Kiwi match. Kapuka’s team was as follows:—Misses A. King; O. McMillan, N. Faulkner; M. Harpur, I. Baxter, B. Swale; R. White. N. King, F. Robinson, D. Kelly and M. Kelly. South B (Kiwi) : Misses D. Fox; E. McLaughlin, R. Sinclair; E. Hannon, D. Davis, E. Hastie: L. Nicholson, R. Wain, V. Mclntosh, M. McLean. In the game which resulted in a score of eight to Kapuka and one to South B, scores were made for Kapuka as follows: —Misses N. King (5), D. Kelly (2) and F. Robinson (1). Miss V. Daplyn refereed.