HOCKEY NOTES

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 152, 30 May 1903, Page 24

HOCKEY NOTES

By Bully

The big event on Saturday was the meeting of the United and Wellington Clubs on the latter's "round, at Miramar, w hen the United mem showed that their star is still in the ascendant* by scoring a well-earned win by four goals to nil. * * * S. Hickson for United, gave a fine exhibition of centre-forward play, his passing - being sharp and well placed, and his hard shooting in the circle kept Preston, the Wellington goal keep, constantly on the gui vive and resulted in his notching; two out of the four goals scored. The other two goals were obtained by the two wing-forwards, Organ and Smythe. The latter deserves a special word of praase for his ground fielding, and, indeed, all through he did yeoman service. The other two forwards. Holhs and McLean, contributed good hard games, though McLeans play at times was characterised by a wildness and lack of method that he will, no doubt get rid of with a little more experience in senior contest®. King, at centre half, showed great improvement on his form of last season, and attended to the wants of his forwards in, a diligent and heady manner, and the same is to be said of his outside colleagues, Weybourne and 0 Sullivan. The two full-backs, Ashbolt and Hickson proved a veritable brick wall for the oDposmg forwards! to dash their heads aeamst and Pearson, m goal, extnoated his team from some tight places and controlled his team like the veteran he is. To sum up every man in the team did what he had to do well, while the team as a whole worked together with the precision that has stood them in such good stead in the past, and which must be attained by the other teams before they can dislodge the United men from the top of the tree. * * * Now, for the Wellington team. I will not go into such full particulars, as any adverse criticism must be- directed against the si.de as a whole, and not against the men. Each individual player did fairly well, and at times the majority were brilliant, but on each occasion when this, did occur the good effect was nullified by want of system on the part of the rest, of the team. Thus on several occasions Hull on the left wing, would take the ball down the field and centre, only to find that his other forwards were not in the circle to receive the ball. Again, one would see a half or full back stop a rush in pood style, and send the ball out to where his wine-forward should have been, but was not, and soon. Still, again the fielding of the team evcent perhaDS in the case of Reid, was shocking the win<r-forwa,rd being most noticeable in this falling The forwards did not make anything of numerous scoring chances in the circle mainly because each man w r as erowdmsr hi«. neighbour, and rushine in everywhere instead of alwaiys entering the circle in the same 1 place and as much as possible keeping that plaoe

Another w eak feature in the play w as the system ofr short passing indulged n by the forwards, as opposed to the hard clean hitting of the United men Pdkington, the Wellington centieforwaxd, mars his play badly by this defect. The left and centre half backs Reid and Bal harry did then best to aveit defeat, but Scott, on the right, was completely over-matched by the tactics of Smythe and McLean, and his display altogether was very mediocre Beere and Pope, as full-backs, were very fair, and Preston in goal gave an exhibition worth going a long way to see. He stopped at least two shots that looked like certain scores, one by jumping and catching the ball in one hand, and the other I don't know how, and I am sure no one else but Preston knows either. * * * It is only fair to the Wellington forwards to mention that at the beginning of the game they were disorganised y the absence of Bridge, who missed the drag, and had to walk out, arriving twenty minutes late, and after the United men had a score to their credit. * * • The other senior game Vivian v Victoria College was a hard fought, ,f not brilliant struggle from start to finish though Vivian had rather a slice of luck in inducing one of the Collegians to score a goal for them. Of course, this was done unwittingly, but I understand the Vivians are none the less grateful. The two Hobys, pere et fils. did excellent service for Vivian in the back brigade, and Dawson was most prominent in the van, his goal being the. result of a good Diece of work. Beeie, though inclined to dribble too much in the centre of the field, earned his two goals on the College side, and was ably backed up by King on the rightwing. This player has a great amount of pace, and evinces- much dash and energy, especially energy. « • * In the junior division the V.M.C.A. team put up a great surprise by beating the Wellington juniors, who had drawn with United the match previously. The new club are to be congratulated on this performance, which is all the more creditable for being the second time the team has played, and in a contest which was looked on as merely a r>ract'ce game for the older team. ♦ * • The muoh-talked-of game, United v. Cforistchurch, which was to have been played on Empire Day, unfortunately fell through. It appears that the Canterbury Association appointed that date for a trial game to select the South Island team, and, owning to this, the Southern club was unable to vet a team away. This proved a great disappointment to a large number of intending spectatois, who journeyed across, to the Bay, and had to content themselves with a few scratch matches, and an exhibition game by one of the ladies' clubs. • » • I must heartily endorse the remarks in Saturday's "Post," by my fellow scribe, "Offside," anent the dressingrooms, or absence thereof, at Day's Bay. To have to change in a, room that has been a shop, and is fitted up with a b-g window in front, in lieu of a wall, and in full view of the great colonial public, is a most blushful exnenence, even for the most hardened hockevist, and one which, must prove equally embarrassing to the aforesaid public which has, like the Levite of old, to Dass on the other side with averted face and downcast eye In addition: to this, the space available is

totally inadequate, and reform in this direction is urgently needed. The match at Levin on Empire Day, between the local club and Karon, proved a- very he;ht lunch for the visitors who won a runaway game by seven goals to one.