HOCKEY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 508, 15 May 1909, Page 12

HOCKEY.

(Br Driver.) Ho first series of. matches in the Wellington Hockey Association's annual Championship wore played last Saturday under perfect weather conditions. The sunrise of tho day was the defeat of last year's champions, United, by Y.M.C.A., a team that did not finish very high in the previous championship. The explanation appoars to lie in the fact 1 that the winners have been, enabled to change the places of certain of -their players, and that United were very weak in the halfback linei Still, no explanation takes away any credit from Y.M.C.Ai's win, and they are to bo congratulated on their initial success. Hicksori, right full-back, defended splendidly time: after time, for United, but his efforts did not receive enough support. The match between Vivian and victoria College did not lack interest." The defeat of the latter by one goal was a surprise to all, even the winners, although that is not said to detract from their win in any way. The losers were sadly lacking in combination, but thero'were Bome flashes of .individual play. Vivian received great assistance from Donovan, on ,tho left wing, whoso. oentring was excellent; He seemed' te know : the right time to make for the circle so as to enable the forwards_ to score. There will be ono or two changes in the College team torday. Burbidge replaces Treadwell in goal, Griffiths goes to full-back from half, Waldegravo relinquishes his position as full-back, and A. D. Brcrdie takes Griffiths'® plaoe as half. Wesley and Karori met on No. 1 ground, Day's Bay, the result'being a draw. "The contest very keen throughout. 'The Light Blues had easily the better up to'the beginning of the second half," when the bcoto stood at 4—o in their , favour. From that time, however, they seemed to lose some of their dash, and coincident,with this Karori mado a solid attack. • They evened the! scoro, but were unable to get ahead of 'their opponents. G. Davies was prominent for Karori. Dixon, Wesley's left' wing, and Birch, on the •right, played well/ but the backs did not appear to be in form. Jaoobsen played brilliantly at times, but he took, two much rißk ■in trying to. place the.ball. ' The match between Wellington and Thorndon,was 1 played on No. 3 ground,* Day's' Bay, and resulted in a win for the former 'by the 1 narrow- margin ; of:'4 goals to nil. From the start Wellington' jiressed, hut the Thorndon baoks were fresh, 1 and ; kept ' the ball from'entering their net,, their goalkeeper saving eomo warm .shots. During the second naif, Thorndon'tried to get down-tie field, but their halves lacked strength in striking the ball; After the ball had travelled up and down fo'r. some time. Beere had a good run down the wing, ana passed to Walton at centre, who scored the last goal. For Thorndon the full-backs and goalkeeper wero, the best .players, and for Wellington Bcere,- Smith, and Smythe" were facile princeps. . ' '... ' Arrangements have been made for the Duppa Street ground to be marked to-day.' A Hockey Referees' Association has been formed at Dannorirke.

Accidents on :tlio" field seemed to be tho order of tho day in Christchurch last Saturday. ■ In the St.' Albans v.! Addington A senior match,, no'fower' tlianfour of tho former team were injured one'way or another, while in the junior match; Sydenham v. St. 4 'Albans,' a player out of both 1 -teams 'was injured. W. Pearce,' of the St. Albans team, received a very nasty_ blow on tho side of the face, winch, it is feared, will prevont lum from participating in the game any more this season. '■ ; • ■ The latest'numbor of "Fry's Magazine" Mr. H. M. Tennbnt, hon. Bee. of tho English Hockey' Association, has an, interesting article on "The Ideal Hookey Team : And, How to Make It." The author is an ex-captain of Oxford University, and Blackheath; and' also a Kont County representative. "In our ideal team," .the writer says, "all our forwards will practically rely on their sticks, and never attempt to use'hands or feet except in very rare cases, namely, with regard to tho former (hands) when the ball-is in tho air, and in respect to the latter (feet) when they are defending. They must receive all. their passes with tno stick, for they will find that tho length of time occupied in stopping Buch passes with hand or feet is generally fatal to successful attack. Our half-backs should acquire the judioious mixture of stick and foot' play; when attacking they should use the former almost entirely,'. and when attacked should only make use of the foot if it is dangerous to take any riskß. We-shall insist on, all our backs using their feet for stopping the ball, as' a general rule: Of course, there are. occasions, when 'stick-play' is as important to a back as a half-back, but these are rare; and as a full-back is, with the exception ,pf the goal-keeper, our last line of defenco, we must make sure that he is to be relied upon to stop the ball quickly and accurately. In' no case can'we allow any raemhor of the team to usethe hand for stopping a ball that is coming, along tho ground when an opponent is any whore in tho vicinity, l as the time wasted in this, way will probably give the opponent an opportunity to tackle liim before he can get rid of tho ball, or at any rate, will afford an oponing for harassing him so,that his subsequent pass will bo inaccurate and ineffective." On playing from left to right with the reverse sido of the stick, the writor advises all players to become expert at this style of play, but he imposes certain limits on the use of it; it must be the exception not the rule. "Wo shall, of course," ho continues,. "severely condemn any player who tries to centre (from tho toucnline) or shoot (from the edge of the circle) with his stick turned round, as he will almost certainly fail to hit tho ball hard enough for our purpose,-whilst his stroke may prove exceedingly dangerous to his opponents."