Hockey: Dutch drag-flick maestro keen to show his wares

Dutch hockey player Taeke Taekema headed the goalscoring list at last year's World Cup in New Delhi. Photo / Dean Purcell

Many hockey players have made the drag flick an art form turning what once might have been seen as an even contest into one heavily in favour of the attacker.

Dutch star Taeke Taekema is up there with the best exponents. So are Pakistan's Sohail Abbas and Australian Luke Doerner.

That all three will be on show at the Champions Trophy is testimony to the status the tournament holds.

At last year's World Cup in New Delhi, Taekema headed the goalscoring list with eight. The top-scorers at all tournaments nowadays are those eagle-eyed drag-flickers who attack on sight.

Taekema is back to strut his stuff in Auckland for a second time. He would prefer to forget his first. After playing a key role as a guest player in helping Canterbury through to the 2004 NHL final, he failed to fire and was helpless as North Harbour, led by four goals from now-retired Black Stick Dave Kosoof, won 5-1.

Seven years on, Taekema is looking forward to his first international tournament here.

"It is better than going back to India," said Taekema after he and his team-mates finished a training session on the match turf this week. "The weather is nice and I'm sure it will be good for interest in hockey here."

As for the tournament's standing on the ever-busy international calendar, the Dutch star said: "It is right up there. It comes around every year, unlike the World Cup and Olympics which are every four years. With only the best six or eight teams in the world, the level is tougher than you will face at a 12-team tournament."

Taekema, who had an adidas stick modelled for him bearing the TT10 insignia - his initials and shirt number - acknowledges the part penalty corners play.

"In field hockey penalty corners have always been important and since the rule change in 1992 even more so."

While he says he has never counted the number of goals he has scored, he admitted most of the 216 he has scored internationally in his 234 appearances have come via drag flicks at penalty corners.

He tots up caps and goals on a regular basis citing the ease of international competition in Europe as a contributing factor.

"Pakistan come to play in Holland a lot as well."

Of his stint in New Zealand in 2004, arranged by former international Andrew Hastie who these days coaches in Holland, Taekema said the offer came after the Olympics that year and it gave him the chance to do "something different".

While coaches look for a 33 per cent return from attacking penalty corners, Taekema says "you aim to score from every one but if you manage one in three you and your team are doing well. While the glory might be with the drag-flicker, it is a team effort from the drag out, the stop and the shot".

But he agrees there are not as many penalty corners awarded nowadays which cut back on scoring opportunities.

"Especially in the bigger games, umpires do not seem to award as many."

Like his Spanish counterparts, Taekema admits his sport plays a distant second fiddle to soccer but with around 250,000 players, and still growing, it is very significant in his homeland.

Adding to that interest is the expectations surrounding the hosting of the 2014 World Cup.

Whether he is around to be part of that will depend, he says, on how his body holds up.

TAEKE TAEKEMA

Born: January 14, 1980, Leiderdorp

International debut: v Egypt, January 2000

International caps: 234

Honours:

Olympics: Silver, 2004

European Championship: Gold, 2007

Champions Trophy: Gold, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006

World Cup: Bronze, 2002, 2010