St Pauls ready to take India Shield Tournament

Friday 15th August

The secondary schools boys' competition continues with the close rivalry St Paul's and Hamilton Boys have demonstrated in recent years. With HBHS retaining Rankin Cup status and achieving Super 8 supremacy amongst some of the country's elite teams, St Pauls had plenty of incentive to upstage them on Wednesday night, when it produced a 4-1 upset.

Both teams have the player talent and school pride to ensure fiercely contested games in pool and finals play in the upcoming national tournaments. While HBHS travel away to Christchurch for a shot at the Rankin Cup, St Pauls is staying home to get the India Shield which it has never won.
History of India Shield Winners

The Tournament is hosted by the WHA at Gallagher Hockey Centre, Hamilton.

In recent weeks St Pauls have registered the following scores:
vs Hillcrest 4 – 0 WIN

vs Melville 9 – 0 WIN

vs St Johns 7 – 0 WIN

vs Tauranga Boys High (seeded 4th in Rankin Cup challenge) 2 – 2 DRAW

vs Hauraki Plains Collage 3 – 2 (seeded 5th in India Shield challenge)WIN

The St Pauls team, lead by Prefects, CJ Mahon and Nick Quinn take no prisoners when doing battle on the field. No one player is dominant in ball possession, indeed, it is the fact that they play as a close knit unit, that is their strength. Shorter in overall stature than local first elevens, they make up that extra distance by sheer speed and player fitness. When St Pauls take the field they have a total committment until the final whistle. If one had to name a player, perhaps it should be the "find" of the season; new goalkeeper Hamish Quinn who has kept out the opposition time and time again.

For Hillcrest, St Johns and Melville who looked promising early on , it will be to future seasons they will look to for the local 1st XI Championship.

In recent years the different attitudes to tournament aspirations of our leading boys and girls secondary teams is one of the local hockey curiosities. The leading boys' teams have traditionally sought entry to India Shield or Rankin Cup while the girls teams have contented themselves at less challenging tournaments.

Below the top tier of teams its great to see mixed gender teams from Te Awamutu College and Putaruru High entered in the upcoming mixed tournament in Wanganui. For Te Awamutu it will be a sweet reminder of an occasion a few years ago when they attracted national publicity, even making it to The Holmes Show, because their leading player Sarah Hobden was prevented from playing in a boys tournament. It forced a national change to the tournament options being provided for secondary schools.

The next few weeks are set to provide some exciting inter school hockey at Gallagher Hockey complex.