LADIES’ HOCKEY

Southland Times, Issue 22042, 15 June 1933, Page 6

LADIES’ HOCKEY

PROPOSED K CUP TOUR. EXECUTIVE’S PROGRAMME CRITICIZED. In order to give every assistance possible to the Southland ladies’ hockey selectors, the executive of the local association recently decided to bring to an early close the Invercargill competition games and to hold two trial matches each Saturday so that the representative team to attend the New Zealand championship tournament would have at least four playing days together before its departure for the north.' Such decision finds condemnation in the eyes of a South Canterbury enthusiast of the game who, in a letter addressed to “Half-Back,” C/o The Southland Times, and written under the pen name of “Supporter” from Timaru on June 12, offers the following criticism: —

“As a keen reader of your notes

and a follower of hockey in South- • land I read with surprise in Saturday's issue the intention of the association to close the ladies’ competition at an early date to enable it to concentrate on trial games, etc., with a view to selecting the representative team to visit the north in search of the K Cup. “Now, Sir, in my estimation to close the competition at the end of June, as suggested by Mr Sparks, is a step in the wrong direction and is dealing a death-blow to club hockey (which, after all, is the mainstay of the game) as it will be obvious that in trial games only the selected few will have the pleasure of wielding a stick on Saturday afternoons with a corresponding loss of interest to those who have to stand on the bank and who will have to be satisfied with half a season’s play. “Unquestionably Southland representative hockey has slipped in the last year or two and no one would be more pleased than the writer , to see them regain the K Cup which they won and defended so decisively in past seasons, but I think that to curtail competition games so early in the season is too big a sacrifice to fnake even for the coveted trophy and is certainly not encouraging for the young players who have little chance of being selected in the ‘fatal fifteen’ and who invariably enjoy a good season’s hockey. I trust the association will look at this aspect before deciding to ring down the curtain on competition games. “In conclusion I should like io congratulate the Southland Executive on its decision to send a team to the New Zealand Championship and trust that when the “big three” make their final selection the team will be equal to the 1929 combination which upheld the Maroon and Blue traditions so ably.”

“Half-Back” is unable to reconcile his own views on this matter with those of “Supporter,” who must be thanked both for the spirit which prompted him to proffer his well-intentioned opinion and for his good wishes. When the question of an early termination of the competition games came up for discussion by the executive, it was generally agreed that while the interests of the players as a whole should not be subrogated to those of the representative team, yet on the other hand it would be utterly ridiculous to consider spending £lOO or so to send the Southland representatives on tour if they had not had at least a reasonable number of playing Saturdays together before departure—it would be fair neither to the players, the officials, the supporters or the game nor to the welfare of the sport as a whole in Southland. For the last two years or so the representative team has taken the field at the tournaments without having had the opportunity, of playing together .at all, or if they did have a previous game it was an isolated match.

“Supporter” seems to be labouring under a misconception as to the actual number of teams in the local competition. There are six teams —about 66 players. Yet the executive has so far considered the interests of these 66 by recommending to the selectors that two trial games shall be played each Saturday following the closing of the competition. Even allowing for the fact that a certain number of Southern aspirants for representative honours will take part in such trials, some 40 odd town players (including the emergencies, each of whom will be tried out) will take the field each week. If there were ten teams playing in Invercargill, it would obviously be unwise to cater for only the two trial games and leave 60 odd girls on the bank, but such is not the position. The executive, it is reiterated, has, in “HalfBack’s” opinion, acted wisely in closing the competition under such circumstances that two trial games will take place each week. If ladies’ hockey in Southland has, as “Supporter” states, slipped during the past 'two seasons, nothing will give the game a greater fillip than the recovery of the Maroons’ prestige at the New Zealand championship tournament. And if the Maroons do not get an opportunity of playing together before the fixture, how can they be expected to go far towards recovering such prestige?