HOCKEY REPLACEMNTS

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19597, 8 June 1935, Page 19 (Supplement)

HOCKEY REPLACEMNTS

OPEN TO ABUSE. INDIANB’ DIVERGENT VIEWB. ACTION IN DOMINION. A divergence in views between the Indian tourists and the New Zealand Hockey Association has ocurred on the matter of -replacements and the discussions which have followed are fully reported in the current issue of the New Zealand Hockey Bulletin. The Bulletin states that the principal business discussed at -two meetings of the management committee was with regard to the replacement of players injured in matches during the Indian tour. When Mr S*' Goodman and Mr W. 11. Down met the Indian party on their arrival in Wellington, their manager-intimated that they did not allow, replacement of Injured players.

lOn Mr Goodman’s return to Christchurch a -meeting of the management committee was called Immediately, and the position -fully discussed, when attention was drawn -to the fact that in all games played -under the jurisdiction of the -New Zealand -Hockey Association, including those against the Indian Army team in 1926, replacement of players injured had always been allowed at least up to half-time. It was decided -by a narrow margin to advise the Indian manager of this.

He replied that the Indians were affiliated to the International Hockey Federation, which had made a .definite ruling that injured players were not to be replaced, and that they had no objection to local players being replaced in all matches -other than tests, but they would not replace their men. On receipt of this wire a further meeting was immediately called. It was felt that the suggestion that local associations should replace their players whilst the Indians would not, would be quite unpalatable to anyone with any sense of sportsmanship. After nearly two hours' discussion it was unanimously agreed that Mr Behra-m Doctor he telegraphed to the effect that in view of his team's affiliation to the International Hockey Federation New Zealand would not replace players Injured In the Test matches, though the committee, anxious to give the public in New Zealand as good a game as possible, asked him to agree to both -sides replacing in other matches. However, he still maintained the attitude that the federaion prohibited him making any such arrangement, and the management committee had no alternative but to agree. Agaliibt Human Nature. The writer of the Bulletin submits that the International Hockey Federation apparently interprets the ; first sentence -of the rules of the game: “A game shall be played by two teams of not more than eleven players each,” to mean that not more than eleven players on each side shall take part in the game at any stage. In New Zealand it has always been interpreted as meaning that not more than eleven players'-shah take part at the same time, and that in eases where the umpire was satisfied a player had been injured during the match lie could be replaced by an emergency. Admittedly, lie says,. the replacement of players is open to abuse, though cases where it has been abused are extremely rare, for the reason that an emergency corning on is not such a good player as the one he is replacing, and it is against human nature for a player to leave the field unless he is genuinely incapacitated. Positional Play Important. Tlie writer’s feeling is that no field game is more depehde'nt on positional play, and that ten players cannot play proper hockey. Another point is that one team can have no satisfaction in its win if, say, two of their opponents have had to leave the field; whilst the game from the spectators’ point of view is definitely ruined. Again if replacements are not allowed it may, perhaps, encourage some unscrupulous player to deliberately Incapacitate an opponent, and there have been Instances in football at least where a player has 'been Injured for life through not leaving the field when hurl.

Comparisons may he made with the English Rugby rule not to allow replacements, but again the position is somewhat different, in that one player out of eleven makes a substantially greater difference to the strength of a team than one out of a Rugby fifteen, and in any case the posilijonal play in hockey as pointed out before is very much more important.

FINE RECORD. INDIAN TEAM’S RESULTS. The first part of the Indian hockey team’s tour of the North Island is now completed and the following is a list of the results of Hie games, with a comparative tally of the scores in the same matches played by the Indian Army team in 1920: 1935 J92G v. Dannevirke Won 21-0 Won 20-0 v. Hawke’s B. Won 17-0 Won 13-2 v. Poverty B. Won 11-0 Not played v. Watroa Won 18-i Not played v. Bush Union Won 0-0 Not played v. Wanganui Won 18-0 Won 12-1 v. Manawatu Won 22-2 Drawn 4-4 v. Horowh’ua Won 10-0 Not played v. Wellington Won 10-1 Won 8-3 Up to this stage 139 goals had been scored by the'tourists, while only four goals were notched against them.