SPECTACULAR HOCKEY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 June 1938, Page 2

SPECTACULAR HOCKEY

INDIAN TOURISTS’ OPENING MATCH WAIRARAPA ELEVEN BEATEN KEEN CONTEST ON SATURDAY Displaying uncanny skill, speed and timing, the Indian hockey team opened its New Zealand tour at Masterton on Saturday afternoon, when they defeated a Wairarapa eleven by 5 goals to nil. The weather was fine, but the ground was on the holding side after overnight rain, and the visitors took some time to adapt themselves to the heavy going. It was a keen, hard game from start to finish, and one that kept the crowd of nearly 3000 keyed up to a high pitch of excitement.

The Indians were vastly superior in all departments, but the fit, virile Wairarapa team adopted hard-hitting forceful tactics, which frequently had the visitors in trouble. Although they went within an ace of scoring on several occasions the homesters at no stage looked like, taking the upper hand. Wairarapa played gallantly, their defence in particular being splendid, but they did not have time to unravel the clever tactics of the Indians, and so could not counter them.

The visitors played superlative hockey, and time and again they turned defence into attack with apparent ease. They gave the impression at time that they had considerably more in hand and on first impressions they appear to be equally as good a combination as the last Indian team to visit the Dominion. Their perfect combination and beautiful positional play were features of the match. They were rarely bustled, and broke up Wairarapa’s hot attacks coolly and calmly. It was their trickiness and brilliant stick-work that captured the imagination of the crowd. Individually, Wairarapa had a strong team, but frequently the visitors made them look silly. It was difficult' to single out any of the Indian players in particular, but Feroze Khan, the centre forward, S. M. Khan, centre half, and A. Latif, inside right, were outstanding, while G. Singh, right full back, saved his side on several occasions with long range hits. Massey, A. Fisher, Worsfold and Tildesley were the pick of the Wairarapa team.

The teams were: Indians: B. Abrahams, G. Singh, S. M. Hussain, M. Y. Qureishy, S.-Khan, L. Rai, Shahabudbin, A. Latif, Feroze Khan, M. S. Khan, P. F. Fernandez.

Wairarapa: Tildesley, Byers, Massey,, Stubbings, Worsfold, Crawley, Jackson, Hooper, A. Fisher, S. Fisher, O'Connor. Wairarapa attacked hotly at the outset, but Indians countered their forceful tactics, and hard hitting by clever stick work and perfect positional play. Clever play by A. Fisher and Hooper saw Wairarapa storm the Indians’ circle, but the visitors broke up the attack with apparent ease. Then came beautiful a piece of concerted play, in which the visitors exhibited complete understanding of each others movements, and culminated in Feroze Khan netting the first goal of Dominion tour. The Wairarapa defence was sorely tested, and only splendid work by Massey and the goalie, Tildesley, kept the extremely versatile visitors out. After withstanding a determined Indian onslaught for nearly ten minutes, Wairarapa, by hard hitting and bustling play, worked through to the visitor’s circle. They never really represented danger, however, and the Indians quickly turned the tide and Shahabuddin flashed clear away only to clout the ball over the top of the net. Wairarapa came again and A Fisher and Jackson went close to scoring. Back went the Indians, wending their way with consummate ease through the opposition for Latif to send in a hot one. Wairarapa retaliated strongly and Worsfold and Hooper missed the net by inches. Play continued at a rattling pace, Wairarapa being strong and fit enough to force the visitors to touch something approaching peak form. The interval score was Indians . 2—o.

Wairarapa continued to play inspired hockey, and they early had the visitors troubled. They lacked, however, the polish necessary to successfully finish off scoring opportunities. In spite of this, they had the Indians playing spectacular hockey. Wairarapa missed three goals narrowly in quick succession, and then the visitors came to light with a delightful concerted movement that broke down right in the Wairarapa goal mouth. They maintained the attack, however, and M. S. Khan slipped a neat shot in to make the Indians three up. O’Connor headed a determined Wairarapa rush, but G. Singh, the visitors right back, cleared with a powerful crack, and from ensuing play in Wairarapa territory, M. S. Khan sent in another stinger. Although they were vastly superior in all phases of the game, the Indians by no means had matters all their own way. The best goal of the day came following a series of hot attacks by Wairarapa, A. Latif smashing in a grand shot to make the score, s—o.5 —0. Wairarapa were showing signs of tiring, but their defence was still particularly good, and the forwards occasionally came to light with bright attacking movements. Play continued at a fast pace, but no side sounded with the scores unchanged. AN EASY WIN ENGLISH TEAM AT AUCKLAND PLAY REACHES SPECTACULAR HEIGHTS (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, June 11. Superior stick-work and speed contributed largely to the success of the English women’s hockey team which beat the Auckland provincial representatives by five goals to one in the second match of the tour at Eden Park this afternoon. Despite the heavy conditions, play reached spectacular heights and the opinion is that had the ground been firmer possibly the score in favour of the visitors would have been greater. The pace of the English side delighted a fairly large crowd of spectators.

The smart movements of the touring players caught the defence out of position on numerous occasions. A feature of their play was the grand backing-up of the half-backs, Misses Barnes, Thompson and Lodge.

The half-time score was 4 —l

The battle was waged fairly evenly in the second spell and the English side was able to add only one more goal to its tally. The visitors displayed excellent ball control, and their positional play was an object lesson. Auckland lost possession often by hitting too far ahead, and on other occasions the English half-backs were able to turn defence to attack. Outstanding for England was Miss Dowling, on the left wing. Misses O’Donoghue, West and Wright in the forwards, also played well. The English half line was the mainstay of the side. ' Mrs Hamlin umpired one half and Miss E. J. Warwick the other. It was noticeable that the latter took a broader interpretation of the rules which made for brighter play and less whistle, a fact which pleased spectators. Misses O’Donoghue (2), West (2) and Wright goaled for England. Auck-’ land’s goal was scored by Mrs Gawler. WAIRARAPA LADIES’ WIN RUAHINE TEAM DEFEATED Although they did not reveal particularly good form, the Wairarapa ladies’ representative team did not experience any great difficulty in defeating the visiting Ruahine eleven by 3 goals to one. Play was hard and fairly interesting, particularly towards the end of the second spell, when both sides improved considerably. Wairarapa led I—o1 —0 at the interval, Mrs McCarthy goaling in the first few minutes. Miss Cadwallader scored for Wairarapa in the second spell, and then Miss G. Enoka netted for Ruahine. Wairarapa’s third goal also came from the stick of Miss Cadwallader. There is plenty of room for improvement in the Wairarapa team, several members of which were definitely not up to representative standard. Misses Harding, Rutherford, Pickering, Barnes and Mrs Foster were about the only five players to impress as being worthy of retaining their positions. ROUGH PLAY SUDDEN END TO WOMEN’S GAME (By Telegraph—Press Association.) HASTINGS, June 12. The women’s hockey match between the Napier A and Matariki Maori teams at Hastings on Saturday was ended suddenly by the referee as the result of incidents following the order off of a Maori player. After a warning had been given against rough play, the referee awarded the game to the Napier team. The game was within ten minutes of the finish when the stoppage of play was ordered, and neither side had scored.