LADIES’ HOCKEY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 June 1939, Page 7

LADIES’ HOCKEY

0 ADVICE TO PLAYERS WHAT RECRUITS SHOULD KNOW. THE OFFSIDE RULE. (BY LES. M. MURPHY). (Wellington Ladies’ Hockey Critic.) This week’s article deals with the bugbear of forwards—the offside rule. Also left side tackling illegalities, speculative hitting and its disaster, and advice to players and the rules. The off-side rule is so clear that players have no excuse on this score for ever getting off-side. Yet off-side causes the blast of the whistle more often,, perhaps, than any other breach. It is surprising that with its double penalty, off-side should be so common. Last Saturday this was one of the principal breaches in the Wellington women’s senior competitions, coupled with an over-indulgence of undercutting. No only does it put an end to promising attack, but it turns that attack into defence by giving a free hit to the opposition. The wing-forwards are generally the chief offenders. It is a bad habit some of them have of roaming about in an off-side position with the hope of gaining some advantage and escaping detection by the umpire. To put a more' charitable construction on their conduct, it is at the very best gross carelessness or, might I be permitted to say, laziness. Some players who know 'they are off-side will frequently play on in the hope that the umpire will think differently. In nine cases out of ten the whistle sounds. It is far safer to abstain and let someone who is not in an off-side position play the ball. Remember, once off-side you cannot put yourself onside by running back into an on-side position. You can be put on-side only by an opponent hitting the ball, or by a member of your own team who is nearer your opponents’ goal-line than you are, hitting the ball. Tackling So As To Obstruct. So long as a player touches the ball before her opponent’s person her stick, she may cross her opponent’s left or tackle her on that side. In its worst form, this illegality is a regular, charge seen often in mediocre hockey. Left halves and left backs are specially prone to this type of illegal tackling. It is one of the arts of forward play to keep an opposing half or back on the left side, and the latter needs to be very careful about this left side tackle. And practically identical with this illegality is that of crossing an opponent’s left in a manner that infringes the rule that says: “A player may not . . cross her opponent’s left unless she touches the ball before her opponent’s person or stick.” Of all illegalities, these and that of “turning on the ball” are most destructive of good hockey. Speculative Hitting. I have invariably noticed backs, and even goal-keepers, missing flying shots when they have ample time to field the ball and get a hit in. This mistiming shots is disastrous play anywhere in the back division of. a team, and has often meant the difference between victory and defeat. On true surfaces flying shots have often become, in the best elevens, a recognised feature of the play, but even in such top-notch teams as for example, Eastern Southland, speculation is notindulged in if a member of the team has a chance of first fielding the ball. Against fast forwards it is seldom a speculator gets two chances. Stick to the Rules. Players and umpires alike should realise that rules are rules and that it is clearly set forth that the stick must not be raised above the shoulders, either at the beginning or end of a stroke. In short, hockey is hockey and not golf, and if one rule is to be infringed with impunity, we might as well eliminate those referring to body play and turning on the ball, etc. It is hoped that young players will inwardly digest this advice and always remember that by , playing strictly to the rules they will not only be assisting to place .hockey on a high pedestal in the public mind, but matially assist, to bring their own names much to the fore in the sport.

Study the Rules. How many players in the Wairarapa have made a thorough study of the rules governing the game? The number of those who have a rudimentary knowledge of what they are permitted to do and not to do, under certain circumstances is legion, compared with those who know the reason for every decision given by an umpire. The very often much maligned umpire is frequently a bady person because he allows a fast forward who was “on-side when the ball was last hit by an opponent” to race in and score. “Off-side” is heard from spectators and frequently players give the umpire credit always for having good reasons for his rulings. We all make mistakes, and things happen on a hockey field that are not provided for in the rules, and an_ umpire, at a moment’s notice —has to administer justice according to his idea ,of it. To give an instance: It is not every player who knows that if an attacker shoots at goal, and the ball is sailing into the net over the head of the

goalkeeper, and the latter raises her stick over her head and hits the ball out, saving a certain goal, that the penalty is a penalty corner. Again, if a player rolls the ball in from the side line, and then hits it herself before any other player can get near it. all that can happen is that the other side roll the ball it. I have seen umpire give a penalty bully and even a goal for the first mentioned case, and a free hit for the second. (To be continued on Monday.)