Coach Blackwood pleased with Hatch Cup result

No wonder Wairarapa Hatch Cup primary schoolboys hockey coach Dave Blackwood was pleased with the progress made by his side at their national tournament in Tauranga last week.
A young and relatively inexperienced Wairarapa side went into the event as 23rd seeds and finished up placing 11th.
And they might have done even better had they had not had to play three of their eight games on the water based turf, all of which they lost. Compare that to their five wins from as many matches on the sand turf and it's not hard to see that the bouncier nature of the water turf caused them some problems.
Blackwood said it was a case of what is labelled a wet dressed turf at their local headquarters at Clareville providing a much flatter playing surface than the water turf at Tauranga and the players struggling to come to grips with the different techniques required.
On the sand turf though Wairarapa produced a series of excellent displays with coach Blackwood especially impressed with their ability to convert their scoring opportunities into goals.
"The bulk of the goals came from penalty corners and at this level that doesn't happen very often," Blackwood said. Topping the goal scoring list for Wairarapa was Mitchell Blackwood who along with Braden Smith and Bradley Annear had outstanding tournaments.
Auguring well for Wairarapa at next year's Hatch Cup in Wellington is that all three of them are amongst the eight members from this year's squad who will be eligible to play again then.