Les Wilson, Colin Chester and Robbie Matthews with some of the hockey equipment donated by Chester to the local association on Thursday evening.
Les Wilson, Colin Chester and Robbie Matthews with some of the hockey equipment donated by Chester to the local association on Thursday evening.
Hockey tragic Colin Chester wants to open up his sport for young and old and he's got the gear to do it.
The Orewa business owner and NZ Masters representative has played hockey since he was five years old, and has been travelling the country offering donations of both new and restored equipment to regional associations to help them build up their playing numbers.
Chester was the honoured guest at McDonald's Hockey Stadium in Gonville on Thursday evening during the Winter Social 7-a-side competition, which Hockey Wanganui set up to encourage non-players and others who have been out of the game to have a go, using a half-field format.
The Chester family are right behind two initiatives – Hockey Gear Recycled and Grow the Game of Hockey NZ.
Both programmes encourage newcomers to try out the sport at low costs due to the equipment being made available.
Grow the Game sees the Chester family offer brand new equipment to associations for the same purpose of enticing both children and adults, who either haven't played before or are thinking about getting back into it, but are worried about their immediate budget.
"My brother and I purchased a whole lot of Kookaburra hockey gear at the beginning of the year.
"Hockey NZ then emailed every association in the country, and said "the Chester brothers have brought all this hockey gear, including 1000 hockey sticks".
"You tell us how you're going to grow the game in your area, like Whanganui or New Plymouth, because I've been to Taranaki a few days ago.
"We got an email from Robbie [Matthews] here, saying 'we want to grow the hockey here by getting more kids playing and more people back to the hockey'.
"They gave us a list of gear they thought they'd like, and we gave them all that gear including sports shoes, shin pads, mouth guards."
Convincing potential players to have a go, knowing it's not going to be an expensive risk because good equipment is available on the day, is the key to it, Chester said.
"It is important to start out at the lower level.
"There is an argument that maybe by us giving away this gear to this association, the local sports shop misses out.
"Our answer is, the person who gets the gear, they're not hockey people to start with, so they're not going to go buy a hockey stick or spring for hockey pads from the shop because they're not hockey people."
He added that once a child discovers they love the game, the parents would be more willing to purchase them personal gear, knowing it's not destined to just end up collecting dust in the back of the cupboard.
"That's where the local sports shop benefits from it," said Chester.
"It's getting grass roots level of hockey, and it could also be mothers in their 30's and 40's who haven't played since they were kids.
"Now, it's time for them, kids off their hands, to go and do the sport."
As well as Whanganui and New Plymouth, Chester has donated equipment in Darfield on the Canterbury plains, as well as the South Island's West Coast towns of Hokitika, Greymouth and Westport.
Greymouth does a local schools invitational tournament every February, and Chester said last year they had 26 teams, but this year after his equipment donation, there were 42.
"We can see the game is growing, just by that. It's just a massive improvement of people playing.
"The secret then is to keep them playing, that's where these associations have got to be more 'hang on, we've got this captive audience here, we've given them a go, at having a go'.
"We're just the catalyst to make a start."
Chester's visit to Gonville also allowed him to have a warm reunion with 1976 Olympic Games' Black Stick and Hockey Whanganui life member Les Wilson, with the pair having been team mates in the NZ Masters squad.
Chester, middle, gave sticks and shin guards to City College teacher Ross Pui, left, for his school squad of non-playing students who entered the Winter Social league on Thursdays.
