Hockey Notes

During the winter months of 1899 and 1900 the students of Victoria College took no part in outdoor games except as individual members of the various local football and hockey clubs. There was consequently no real "team spirit" in the College. But the formation of the V.U.C. Men's Hockey Club in April, 1901 quickly changed all that, and when the winter of 1902 had arrived there had already been created, not alone among the men but the women students also, an enthusiasm and a camaraderie which increased by leaps and bounds in the years immediately following. Let it be said at once that the founders of the Men's Hockey Club can never forget their debt of gratitude to the women students in their early struggles to make the young club an effective factor in the creation of a healthy "team spirit" in the College. The delightful dances in Sydney Street Schoolroom (which seemed such big undertakings in those early days), the ping-pong tournaments, etc., promoted by the hockey club in 1901, by the combined hockey and tennis clubs in 1902, and the combined hockey, tennis, and football clubs in 1903, were made page 79 successful only because the women students "rolled up their sleeves" and provided the necessary suppers and generally cooperated whole-heartedly with the men's committees to ensure both the financial and the social success of these various functions. And as nothing succeeds like success, one result of all this was that the general public, in increasing numbers, began to take an interest in the College and its students. It is probably correct also to say that the rapid increase in the number of students taking lectures year by year was in no small degree due to the good name which the students earned both at these functions and on the playing fields.

It was in April, 1901, that a very timid student, one G. F. Dixon, who had previously secured promises of support from F. W. Furby and P. S. Foley, put up an unsigned notice on the College notice boards as follows: "Is anyone interested in the formation of a hockey club"? A day or two later, a student named R. St. J. Beere tapped Dixon on the shoulder during a meeting of the Debating Society and asked if it was he who had put up the notice above referred to. Dixon, thinking that the stranger was seeking to hold him up to ridicule, bristled up and boldly answered "Yes, I did." To his surprise the stranger answered "Then I would like to help you." Dixon's bristling attitude relaxed,—his newly found friend who had played the previous two seasons for the Wellington Hockey Club, promised to support Dixon, Furby and Foley,—and on 18th May, 1901, the first XI. took the field at Karori against Karori Juniors. The College had only ten players, but de la Mare, who had gone out as a spectator, was prevailed upon to play for "just this once." He did so—and remained a member of the team till the Football Club was formed and claimed him in 1903.

Prior to the match, a meeting of the eleven was held on the ground. Beere was elected Captain, H. P. Richmond, Vice-Captain and Dixon, Hon. Secretary and Treasurer.

If ever a club deserved to succeed, surely this one did, for many a morning its members turned out at 6 a.m. with the frost on the ground, and practised for an hour where the benzine stores are now situated on the Hutt Road, at Thorndon.

The senior team was entered for the Wellington Hockey Association's Junior Championship, but as was only to be expected, when the players were so new to the game, they were beaten rather badly in the first round. Not so, however, in the second round, for in addition to playing a drawn game with the ultimate winners of the Cup, the V.C. team defeated the Waiwetu XI. whose representatives beat every team in the second round except the College.

The following year the senior team was promoted to the senior grade, and a team was also entered for the Junior Cup competitions. At the end of the season D. Matheson was picked for the Wellington senior "reps," whilst the late I. M. Batham and B. C. Smith gained Junior representative honours.

Hockey continued to flourish at the College, though in 1904 the formation of the Football Club robbed the Hockey Club of some of its best players; but the latter survived the ordeal so well that at the end of the season its membership was actually greater than before.

The following extract from the Hockey Club's report in the Christian Union handbook for 1904 is of interest:

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"Hockeyites are pleased to be able to congratulate the footballers on having successfully braved the difficulties of their first season. May the same good feeling as at present exists between the two clubs long continue; may each continue to assist the other whenever possible and may their common watchword continue to be "College first—football and hockey afterwards."

The first men's hockey match against another University College was against Otago in 1905, when Victoria won. The second was played against Auckland University College at Auckland in 1907, when Victoria was again successful. In 1907, also, V.C. played a drawn game against Otago University, in Wellington.

In 1905, three V.U.C. men gained North Island representative caps, viz., C. H. T. Skelley, J. A. Ryburn and R. St. J. Beere.

In 1908, two College players, H. W. Monaghan and D. S. Smith, were in the first Wellington representative team to win the New Zealand Championship shield.

The senior championship was first won by V.U.C. in 1910, with 7 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss (40 goals to 15). The College players were runners-up for the senior championship in 1911 and 1912, and in 1913 again won the Championship with a margin of 7 points.

The year 1913 saw the V.U.C. team again victorious against Otago University. These were the days of the Strack brothers, P. Burbidge, H. W. Monaghan, D. S. Smith and the evergreen R. St. J. Beere, who, by the way, played again for the V.U.C. senior team during 1923!

From the commencement of the war, the Club, like all other clubs, sent most of its players to the front, but now the war is over the Club shows signs of again coming into prominence.