Editorial: Hockey festival is a winner

The Festival of Hockey in Hawke's Bay is a winner thanks to Mr Bruce Mactaggart

My daughters were rather chuffed at having the Australia and US women's hockey teams face them during their respective national anthems on Saturday.

The kids, who had nowhere else to look, felt like dignitaries, while the ceremony prompted my youngest to interrupt the Star-Spangled Banner to ask me: "Is Barack Obama here?"

This Hawke's Bay Festival of Hockey is quite the thing.

By that I mean it's world class.

Who would have thought the crooning of eight national anthems in 13 days would ring out across a small stadium on the Heretaunga Plains.

Very nice work, Mr Bruce Mactaggart.

Rain, for the second consecutive year, hasn't been kind to the festival. However, we headed there with a horde of young kids and expected either we wouldn't last the distance or the pesky rain would return and force us home. Yet both the interest, and weather, held firm.

Thing is, I'm not naturally inclined to watch this sport. But that doesn't mean there isn't loads to admire at the festival.

For starters, these are supremely fit athletes. They simply don't stop. At the full-time whistle, I'd guess hockey players clock up more miles than any other team sport I can think of.

And neither is it a case of rudimentary flick, drag and pass. It's a watchable mix of heavy collisions, stick entanglements, an occasional lofty airball and some deft needling of the ball through defenders. Highly entertaining stuff. Suffice to say I came away a little chastised, given my former apathy.

Either way, it's an outright coup for this region.

Organisers are gunning for international television coverage next year - airtime this truly international event deserves.