Hockey player leaves mark
22 October 2003 By BRUCE HOLLOWAY It was a season of modest returns for Midland Express in national league hockey, but their battling campaign did at least allow schoolboy midfielder Tim Smith to blossom as a senior player. The 17-year-old St John's College seventh former started the 2003 hockey season with the modest aim of making the Midland under-21 squad. He finished it at the weekend having taken the turf in every one of Midland's national league matches, including full runs in the final two games in Wellington. To cap that, this week he was selected for the New Zealand under-18 trials at Albany in December. Smith's mobility and fitness have made him an influential figure, either going forward or in defence. His passing skills and vision make him an effective schemer, while his high level of commitment has also impressed seasoned hockey watchers. "He is a real team man," says Waikato hockey development officer Bruce Rosemergy. "I can't speak highly enough of him. He is resolute on the field and quite prepared to lose a bit of skin for the team cause." Smith says he has learned a lot from his national league experience.	TEAM MAN: schoolboy Tim Smith impressed in his debut season of national league hockey. PETER DRURY/Waikato Times "There's less time and space, but the difference has been more mental than anything." Smith's national league experience was a great antidote to a disappointing Waikato premier club season, where his talent-laden Fraser Tech team failed to fire. And it will have done his international prospects no harm that among the players he was up against in the national league were the New Zealand under-18 selectors Darren Smith (North Harbour) and Lincoln Churchill (Canterbury).