Waimarino hockey star still rising
Waimarino hockey player Robyn Mathew's star is still rising, with the New Zealand team finishing a successful tournament in Trinidad this week. New Zealand had double cause for celebration after they won 5- 1 win over the Czech Republic in the women' s hockey World Cup preliminary qualifying tournament in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, last Wednesday. The team's fourth straight win confirmed the Kiwis as top qualifiers for the semi-finals, regardless of their one remaining pool match on Thursday. Their assured top four finish also meant the team had qualified for the World Cup qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe next August. They finished emphatically with a 8-0 win against Cuba in the final pool match, remaining unbeaten and taking their goal tally to 29. "When you' ve got two of your major goals achieved and you're only halfway through a tournament you have to be relatively pleased," said New Zealand coach Paul Ackerley . "We were probably expecting more from the opposition but we've actually performed reasonably well ourselves. The work we've done over the last year or so has lifted us a notch beyond the teams we've played so far and we probably haven't been conscious of it." They now meet Scotland, narrow winners of the opposite pool. Ackerley said the opposing pool was probably the stronger of the two with India, Scotland and South Africa vying for the two top spots. New Zealand were to play the second-placed finisher in that pool which at this stage could be any of those three teams. Robyn Mathews was named New Zealand' s woman hockey player of the year at the end of September, at a function in Christchurch to mark the end of the national hockey tournaments. Mathews, 32, is one of the longest-serving New Zealand players, playing 83 internationals before Trinidad. She recently paid tribute to a Wanganui men's team for her form at the national tournament. Robyn said playing for the Tech men's team in Wanganui made the season for her, with the men playing a faster, sharper game — each game like an intemational for her. To give her top level play at the national women' s tournament at Christchurch, in the lead-up to the preliminary World Cup tournament, she played in the top grade for Hawke's Bay. In the play-off for third and fourth, the centre half scored four goals for Hawke's Bay when they beat Otago 5- 1 . Matthews showed outstanding all-round skills at Christchurch to win the women' s player of the year award.
She said she played for Hawke's Bay because the national selectors wanted tough games for her before the preliminary cup tournament at Trinidad. She said she had tried to play for third division Wanganui at its earlier national tournament, but had not been allowed to play for two associations. She plans to play for Wanganui at the national tournament next year. Matthews' ambition is to play 100 internationals, with one other player, Mary Clinton (Canterbury), having done so. Before the Trinidad trip, she had played 83. Matthews retired after the Barcelona Olympics, but enjoyment of the game took her back to it as a player. Two sporting heroes are former squash player Susan Devoy and former netballer Sandra Edge — both tough and tenacious, who tried to give their best all the time. "They are determined and I guess I am, too. They are good role models." Matthews said her husband, Richard (a former Wanganui rugby representative loose forward), was very supportive of her playing hockey. She also had excellent support from hockey people in Wanganui. Matthews started playing hockey at the age of five, in Hawke' s Bay , moving to King Country when aged 1 0. She played in her first national tournament, for King Country, in 1979 and played for Waikato from 1980-89. She played for Auckland in 1989-90 and Otago in 1991, moving to Wanganui in 1992. The mid-fielder has been a member of the Wanganui team since. She first played for New Zealand in 1985, played at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and in World Cup tournaments at Amsterdam (1986) and Sydney (1990). The New Zealand team is due to return home tomorrow, row, 30 October. They played warm-up games at Trinidad against Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa and Scotland before opening their cup campaign on 17 October against Japan. The other teams in New Zealand' s pool were Belgium, France, the Czech Republic and Cuba. The six teams in the other pool were India, Italy, Jamaica, Scotland, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago.
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Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 660, 29 October 1996, Page 12
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762Waimarino hockey star still rising Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 660, 29 October 1996, Page 12
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