Hockey: Bad weather had no effect

Hugo Inglis scored twice in the Black Sticks 5-1 win in the third test. Photo/Andrew Warner

Tauranga Hockey general manager Clyde du Toit must be wondering what he has done to upset the weather gods.

For the second consecutive year, a prolonged drought period has broken with a cyclone just as international hockey is to be played at Blake Park.

But the good news compared with last year's women's tri-series is that all three games between the men's Black Sticks and Japan were played before the bad weather arrived - thanks to some smart thinking on behalf of tournament organisers and both the New Zealand and Japan team management.

Saturday afternoon's third test was shifted to Friday night in a successful piece of common sense thinking that other sports would do well to follow.

Du Toit says it is nice when an informed decision turns out to be good.

"It was a tough decision because it had quite big effects on both teams, as well as the spectators," he said. "But as the teams said, they would rather play the game than not at all, especially Japan who had come all the way out here."

He was happy with crowd numbers of around 1500 to watch the tests over the three days and says they received excellent feedback from both sides about the playing facilities and accommodation by the beach.

"There is no doubt both teams really enjoyed playing on the turfs. It was obviously incredibly fast and we saw that in the games with the ball speed exceptional. Both players and coaches were really pleased and the lights were really good as well. That I was really, really pleased with."