Improvement In Standard Of Women’s Hockey

Southland Times, Issue 24109, 24 April 1940, Page 11

Improvement In Standard Of Women’s Hockey

By

ROLL-IN

On Saturday the Southland Women’s Hockey Association began the new season. The day was fine and in spite of wet, long grass, _ good hockey was played for so early in the season, giving promise of some good exhibitions of hockey during the season. The first game, Technical-Collegiate started off well and the standard of play showed an improvement on the first game of last season. Technical is fielding almost a new team, having only four of last year’s players left. However, there is a number of promising players among the ne.w members, particularly J. Sycamore, G. Warnecke, L. McDermott, H. Withington and N. Anderson. I. Hinton and B. Greer are shaping well and after more experience will certainly become good players. P. Hemmings, O. Hemmings, R. Watson and J. Macgregor are the only ones left of last year’s team. They have all shown up, after Saturday’s game, as greatlv improved from last season. Collegiate started off the season with two players short but the prospect of fielding full teams for the remainder of the season are good. Collegiate fielded two new club members, A. Shaw from Technical and I. Hunter from Eastern district—a sister of H. Hunter of Eastern Southland fame. A. Shaw, on Saturday’s play, shows that she is a dangerous player whenever an opening in the defence lets her through. She is fast and keen and an opportunist. I. Hunter shows great promise and is a steady realiable player, who should make a name for herself. The A. Shaw —D. Gray—N. Wylie combination is strong and should be a thorn in the side of any opposing team. E. Blackie, M. McLeod, A. Bateman, P. Millard and O. Butler, are all show-

| ing improvement on last year and with ' a full team to help will go far. I Collegiate has a strong team this season and will force Ex-High to play ’ strongly in order to retain both the Shield and Dey Cup. I Both Ex-High and Invercargill were short of players but they are fully confident of fielding full teams next , Saturday. I For Ex-High one new member, S. Monk, a Technical player of last season and E. Livingstone, an Ex-High player of two years ago, turned out. M. Woods also played hei’ first season’s game after a spell of two or three seasons, and showed that she has not lost any of her speed or stickwork. S. Monk wth her sisters H. and F. Monk showed considerable improvement; all three of them will be really good players before the season is over. E. Fox, L. Fraser, J. Wallace nee Anderson, L. Purvis and M. Ford proved to be the mainstays of the team. E. Livingstone still misses too many passes in her left wing position and should concentrate on stopping the ball more often. For Invercargill E. Edwards and L. Cook, from Technical, proved themselves better players than last year, mainly because of their association with better players. P. Sinclair, goalie, has made a good start for the season and should prove an excellent goalkeeper. M. Elliotte still obstructs badly and should concentrate on improvement in her attacking. G. Tomlins is inclined to kick the ball too much. M. Kelly, B. Swale and F. Foulston proved the mainstay of the team, being well supported by E. Edwards, M. Elliotte, G. Tomlins and T. Watts.