Hockey: Matthews vows to reclaim NZ place

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

New Zealand's most-capped women's hockey player, Robbie Matthews, has missed the first cut for the Olympic Games.

Matthews, with 151 tests for New Zealand, was not among the 13 players named yesterday to form the backbone of the women's squad for Sydney.

But the 36-year-old Olympic veteran is determined to grab one of the three spots left, through her last avenue, the Champions Trophy in Holland in a fortnight.

Matthews, who runs her own landscaping business in Wanganui, has plenty of reasons to fight her way into the team.

Her experience in world hockey is unrivalled in New Zealand - she has been to three World Cups, three Champions Trophy tournaments, the 1996 Olympics and the 1998 Commonwealth Games.

"And I promised my daughter, Mandy, that she can have a puppy after I come home from the Olympics," an up-beat Matthews laughed.

She played in only three of six games at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Milton Keynes last month.

But she wants to give coach Jan Borren no option but to re-select her with a gutsy performance at the Champions Trophy for the world's top six nations.

New Zealand executive director Ramesh Patel said the selectors were convinced about 13 players, and named them now because the team had to move to live in Wellington for 10 weeks.

"It was best for them to know they were in so they can tell their employers," he said. "The other six players now have the chance to impress in Holland."

As well as Matthews, the players gunning for the last three spots are Leisen Jobe, Lisa Walton, Diana Weavers, Michelle Turner and Rachel Sutherland.

Three players who are not going to Holland have been given tickets to Sydney - Kate Trolove, Caryn Paewai and Tina Bell-Kake, who is making a swift recovery from knee surgery.

New Zealand Olympic 13: Tina Bell-Kake, Sandy Bennett, Helen Clarke, Kylie Foy, Anne-Marie Irving, Anna Lawrence, Skippy McGregor, Caryn Paewai, Suzie Pearce, Rachel Petrie, Moira Senior, Mandy Smith, Kate Trolove.