Hockey: Game over but no escape for veteran

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Tina Bell-Kake is a little hacked off. Just when the hockey superstar decides to finally give up the game for good, her 5-year-old daughter starts playing with a stick.

"I'm retiring, and all I need is the kids wanting to play now," she lamented at the end of an international career spanning 14 years.

"I'm going to have to spend the next 10 or 15 years on the sideline of a hockey field. I'm not looking forward to that at all.

"I just wanted a rest."

Little Chelsea Bell-Kake came to Sydney to watch her mother play at the Olympics. Now that she is going to get her Mum back for good - and she won't have to scream blue murder every time Mum goes to the airport - the child of New Zealand hockey representatives thinks this ballgame isn't so bad.

Three-year-old Mark hasn't caught on yet and Bell-Kake is relieved about that.

But Chelsea is not the only Kiwi kid who has been caught up in a hockey trance since the New Zealand women threatened to make the Olympic medal play-offs.

Bell-Kake hopes the New Zealanders' fall from grace at the final hurdle will not put kids off trying out the sport.

But, then again, maybe Chelsea could be convinced otherwise ...

"I was hoping maybe my kids would do something different," muses Bell-Kake.

"It would be nice to hang around the netball courts or the golf driving range."

The 33-year-old Rangitoto College physical education teacher is chucking out her turf shoes for good this time.

Sure, she has said that a few times already since she started playing for New Zealand in 1986.

Even New Zealand's disappointing departure from the Olympic tournament on Wednesday night could not persuade her to return.

"I was pretty disappointed and embarrassed that we finished like we did," she said. "Especially since it was the last game ever for a lot of us.

"But that's it now. I've made my decision."

Bell-Kake bows out after 132 tests for New Zealand, in three different stages - before, between and after children.

She has no regrets that she came back for this last phase, even though it has been tough on her family.

"After every game here it was a nightmare. Chelsea would scream and scream every time I headed for the team bus," said Bell-Kake, whose parents brought the two children to Sydney.

She has left the athletes' village these past two nights to stay with her children, but tomorrow the team reassemble for a last lunch together.

At least three other players have called it a day - New Zealand's most-capped woman and former captain Kate Trolove, and Canterbury fullbacks Rachel Petrie and Jenny Duck.

Two other captains, Kylie Foy and Anna Lawrence, say they will consider their international futures after a break.

"I think a few players should take a year off and think about it," said Bell-Kake.

"The last couple of years have been pretty full-on, and we all gave up a lot to get to the Olympics.

"A few years off did me no harm.

In fact, it made me refreshed and more motivated."