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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 1, No. 16 July 20, 1938

Women's Hockey

Women's Hockey

All those who took part in the Hockey Tournament at Dunedin are in agreement, I think, in that they received two distinct impressions during their stay: the first, concerning the weather; the second, all other aspects of the Tournament. Of the second, everyone has brought away the happiest recollections of the first, the wondering thought, "How do they live through it?" The weather, in short, was shocking; the ruin had turned the hockey fields at Logan Pack into a quagmire where any step might land player and bait into ankledeep mud or water, and at the conclusion of each game, one mud-be-spattered face and gym-frock was very like the next. When apologizing for keeping the Stick at Otago, the Captain of the Otago girls remarked, "But don't imagine we have given you nothing. Think of the mud, think of the liberal helping of good Otago soil you are talking home with yon!" The chilly reception of the Dunedin climate, however, was soon forgotten in the warmth of proverbial Scottish hospitality, Otago entertaining its visitors royally with Bob-Hop, Dinner, Picture Party, and Ball.

The form displayed by the women's teams was much the same as last year in Auckland, with Otago in the lead, closely followed by Auckland, and Canterbury and Victoria considerably further down the scale, "Salient" of last week, in speaking of Victoria's chances at the ournament, announced: "The prospects of the women's team cannot be regarded hopefully," and so it turned out, The Victoria girls, in site of their best efforts, were able to do nothing to rebute this mournful propecey, the only consolation being that so inured to defeat have they become, that it can do nothing to spoil their enjoyment of the games. John Bacon's energetic defence work gained her the place of emergency to the N.Z.U. team, but the remainder of the team return to Wellington no more distinguished than they left it. Throughout, the standard of play was spoilt by the poor conditions.

The Hockey Tournament is an event in which the Varsity as a whole takes very little interest: its representatives do not gain the distinction that attaches to participants in the Easter Tournament: yet, of later years, it has widented and developed until it has become what seems an almost perfect form of University entertainment. Once, inclusion of hockey in the Easter Tournament sports seemed a desirable, though impossible, object: but so enjoyable and finished an event has the Hockey Tournament become, that all hockey players would be very sorry to lose their individuality and their Tournament thus, Otago, acting as hosts for the first time, ably carried on what has now become the tradition of Hockey Tournament—to grow "better and better."