HOCKEY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 106, 6 May 1929, Page 4

HOCKEY

WANGANUI ASSOCIATION OPENING CLUB MATCHES. The first scries of club matches for the 1929 season was staged at Gonville Park on Saturday. Play in most cases was of a poor order, but no doubt a much bett.er standard will be reached after a few games. The attendance was much be low that of last week but the generally uninteresting nature of the draw for the first week may hayc accounted r some slight lack of interest. A surprise was effected in the senior ranks by Wesley, who, with a much weakened team, J'-rced a draw from Star A. Ohl Boys’ big win over Star B shows that the whites are out to make a strong bid for the championship again this season. Hincmoa had the bye on Saturday in the senior grade. STAR A AND WESLEY. The opening play was rather tame, ov’er-hitting being in evidence. Star were first to assert themselves but offside cheeked the movement. Play settled in Wesley’s end of the ground but half-a-dozen times the Star forwards were penalised for offside. Keeping up the pressure, however, Star opened the scoring per medium of Groombridge. Shortly afterward Allport made a neat opening for Tizzard but the latter’s shot was not strong enough and was diverted round the post. The long corner was placed right in the goalmouth and a hot time was spent by the Wesley defenders keeping their goal intact. Eventually a clearance was effected but Star came back and this time Groombridge made no mistake, scoring with a hot shot. Wesley began to show up more in attack, but Phillips was very safe. Star continued to hold the upper hand, only bad shooting and offside play preventing them increasing their lead. Just before the interval there was a sudden change. Thrush fastened on to a clearing hit and urew the lefence beautifully before giving possession to Barlow. The last-named took a flying shot from the angle and found the net, and the interval came.—Star 2; Wesley 1. In the second sp.ell Star were first moving and quieklj added a goal, Allport being the scorer: Star 3; Wesley 1. Thrush now played back, exchanging with Hartnell. The change put a check on the opposing forwards. Wesley were much more in the picture and periodically peppered the Star goal. From one such raid Barlow was successful in scoring.—Star 3; Wesley 2. Upon resuming, Star made ground but a long hit sent them back. Phillips was penalised for “sticks,” and the resultant free hit placed the ball in the reds’ circle. Here, in .he course of a wild scramble, the ball passed over the goal line a few inches before before being cleared. The referee rightly awarded a goal.—Star 3; Wesley 3. Star tried hard for the winning point and for the remaining few minutes attacked almost continuously. Thrush was a tower of strength to the Wesley defence no wand Bevan was also doing [ well. Once Latham broke right away ) and passed infield, giving the Star fori wards following up . great chance, but 1 a free hit allowed .Veslcy to avert the [ danger, and the game ended: —

Star A 3 Wesley 3 Messrs W. Hughes and Howartson were referees. OLD BOYS AND STAR B. Star promoted their last year’s junior team to senior ranks and it was somewhat unfortunate that they should have drawn such redoubtable opponents as Old Boys in their first game. Last year’s champions simply monopolised the first spell, which .ended 11 to nil in their favour. The second session saw much improvement in the. Star team’s work and several times they were within an ace of scoring. However, Old Boys added a further five goals to their tally, the final score being: Old Boys ..... ... ..... 16 Star B 0 referees. Messrs Parton and Hillgrove refereed. MEN’S JUNIOR. Star 3 (Beale 2, Jones 1) defeated Tech. College B 0. Tech. College A 3 (Bouswjjr 2, Murray 1) defeated Hinemoa 2 (Howartson 1, Berry 1). LADIES. Weslev 4 (Miss R. Field 4) defeated Old Girls B 0. Star A 5 (Misses Whyman, Warden, Pitt, Bell and Coster) defeated Waitotara 0. Old Girls A .13 (Miss M. Brooks 7, R. Brooker 2, Brown 2) defeated Star B 0. Girls’ CoJlego A 6, defeated Aramoho A, 4. Girls’ College B 4, dfeated Aramoho B 2. AUSTRALIANS’ VISIT TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND. [ Australian Press Asst. ] Received May 5, 5.5 p.m. SYDNEY, May 5. The New Zealand Hockey Association’s invitation to the Australian Hockey Assciation to send a good representative team to the Dominion has been accepted. The team will consist of 16 players and will leave Sydney, probably in July.