It's been quite a bit of time between entries and it's not that anything hasn't happened, there just hasn't been time to write. That, and I'm lazy.
One of the highlights for me in the interim has been a guest appearance in the Canterbury Premier Hockey League. One of my big hopes in coming to New Zealand was to find a hockey (field hockey here) club to play for. While I have found a coaching job, I've been hard pressed to find a team to play with. During one of the recent university holidays I got an e-mail from my American colleague Todd Robinson to tell me that their goalkeeper was going to be away for the weekend and their replacement wouldn't be back on a flight until after their upcoming game on the Saturday. He asked if I was interested and my thought ran along the lines of "Does a bear s**t in the woods?" Of course I was interested. Able, is another matter.
As I've previously written, I've had a huge issue with my feet (plantar faciatis) so I won't even pretend to be fit. As a goalkeeper, not a huge thing, but from a comfort perspective being fit helps. I've been standing in goal with my girls for training when we don't have a keeper but it's not the same as playing against Premier men. The week of my premier debut I had an opportunity to train with the University Men's club before the match and I don't know what they thought when I turned up. Part one was probably relief because the other option was to have a field player dress up and stand in goal (something no one wanted to do) but part two must have been, "WTH, where have we got this guy from?"
After a few minutes of adjusting to ball speed, I started to get comfortable and it helped that the boys were being sympathetic. Eventually things moved on to full tilt and I know I'm not a kid anymore, but I felt pretty good. I got a good workout in and then got ready for our big game against High School Old Boys. University is a fairly strong club and Old Boys have had a tough season so on paper we should have been fine. I allowed an early goal off a corner, a drag flick that I tried to do too much on my save and ended up putting one to the inside of the post and into the goal as opposed to out of bounds. That was the extent of what I had to do in the first half as we ended the half trailing 1-0. Mercifully we got a goal early in the second half and while I only had two more touches, we got a second and won 2-1. Not quite a Hollywood story, but a lot of fun.
Winter is coming to an end and Summer Hockey is soon to start. Summer is Master's hockey season and while I don't know that I'm a master, I'm certainly masters aged (over 35). I'm looking forward to playing. 53 going on 15; I just need to remind my body.
Cheers,
Jon
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