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= Underwater hockey in New Zealand = From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Underwater hockey has been played in New Zealand since 1974 and is played around the country. Since 2002, New Zealand has been a dominate force in Underwater Internationally.

Contents

 * 1 History
 * 2 Domestic Club Competitions
 * 3 Domestic School Competitions
 * 3 New Zealand at the World Championships
 * 4 Governance
 * 5 See also
 * 6 References
 * 7 External links

History[edit]
The first mention of Underwater hockey in New Zealand dates to 1963, when some divers in Nelson tried it out. However, it did not become an established sport in New Zealand until mid 1970's.

It is though that around 1974, Underwater Hockey's introduction is attributed to Marshall McDonald brought the original version of Underwater Hockey "Long Stick" from South Africa to New Zealand. He made contact three clubs in Auckland and their representatives Dave Parore, Pakuranga Underwater, Dick Knight Bluefin's and Dave Moran of Reefcombers. These three clubs generated a competition that includes four divisions with six to eight teams in each division. Competitions also spread to Wellington and Christchurch and most of the teams originated from Dive clubs with active spearfishing sections. The spearo's used underwater hockey to maintain their fitness during the winter months until the bug hooked them in and they adopted underwater hockey as their new focus.

In 1980, New Zealand followed the rest of the world, and changed to short sticks, and adopted the international rules.

Domestic Club Competitions[edit]
The first National Championships was organized by Malcom Bird in Palmerston North at the Lido Outdoor Pool and although the visibility wasn't great, the seed for the future was sown and a regular National's has been played each year.

The 1979 Clun Nationals was attended by 18 teams. Auckland teams dominated and the national title was won by Blue Fins.

In the early years there were A, B and C grades. In 1986 three new grades were added to the Club Nationals. The Premier grade was added to cater for elite teams that were obviously better than the A Grade teams. The Mixed Grade with the rule that at anytime there can only be 3 males players in the water at anytime and a Women's grade. The Mixed and Women only grade have suffered from lack of participation and have been combined to provide the minimum grade numbers of 4 teams.

Domestic School Competitions[edit]
The introduction of schools hockey competitions in the early 1980s was started in Wellington by school teacher Jill Ford, and in Auckland by school teacher Jeanette Bell.

The Wellington Secondary Schools League was started in 1982 at Freyberg Pool. The first league winners were Wellington High School in the Boys Division and Wellington East Girls College in the Girls Division. The Schools League moved from Freyberg Pool to the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre in 1989.

In 1984 Jill invited Jeanette to take a team to Wellington and schools competition was started. It was a minibus load of players from Glendowie College on a weekend road trip to play underwater hockey in Wellington. The students were billeted by the Wellington teams and played round robin games on Saturday and a Wellington versus Auckland match followed by food and a prizegiving on Sunday before heading back home. The following year (1985) the first school nationals was held in Wellington with a Bus load of teams (Glendowie, Pakuranga and Howick Colleges) attending the championships. The grades offered at the championships was Girls, Boys, Mixed and Novice. Until 1997, the schools championships was held in Wellington as it was the most central venue in New Zealand. Teams didn’t have to qualify, they just went if they wanted to, and they went in buses, not planes, from Auckland to Wellington because airfares were so expensive. During this time, Wellington College were dominate in the Boys Grade.

With the creation of the New Zealand Secondary School Sport Council, all secondary school events required sanctioning each year and Schools Nationals was sanctioned and included in the Winter Tournament Week (approximately week 6 of term 3) each year. In 1996, a survey of all schools was undertaken by the secondary schools sports council. This survey showed that in 1997, New Zealand had 367players and school teams were limited to 8 players and games were 2 x 10 minute halves. Based on the 1997 survey data 45 teams were possible to attend Schools Nationals. This survey data lead to a number of changes to accommodate the growth.

In 1998, Tristan Reynard, began as the Underwater Hockey committee 'schools underwater hockey development officer', lifting the profile of Schools Hockey and to manage the growth initiated introduced a junior sections for Boy's and Girl's and removed the mixed and novice grades that never had more than 4 teams entered. For schools Nationals, 31 teams participated with 9 teams in the Junior Open grade and 4 teams in Junior Girls grade. The senior Girls Grade had 6 teams and with the senior Open Grade having 12 teams participating. The event did not have sufficient pool time and via working with Huia Pool management, the tournament played until 11pm each day to accommodate the additional teams.

Additional changes in 1998 included the incorporation of the "Best Placed School", Tournament Teams in each grade as well as Team MVP awards. The Best Placed School was awarded to Wellington College with St Mary's College 2nd and Epsom Girls Grammar School 3rd. The Secondary School sports participation survey showed numbers had increased 9.5% to 402 in 1998.

In 1999, Schools Qualifying Tournaments were introduced and team sizes were increased from 8 players to 10 players to accommodate the growth. The Secondary School sports participation survey showed numbers had increased to 502 in 1999.

New Zealand at the World Championships[edit]
New Zealand has played at world level since the inaugural world championship event in 1980 including hosting events in Wellington in 1992 and Christchurch in 2004. New Zealand did not send teams to the 15th CMAS World Championship in 2007 or to the 16th CMAS World Championship in 2009.

New Zealand's placings in world championships[edit]
See also: Underwater Hockey World Championships DNP- Did not participate

N/A- No grade available

Governance[edit]
The peak body is the Underwater Hockey Committee (known as Underwater Hockey New Zealand Inc) of the New Zealand Underwater Association Inc (NZUA). UWHNZ is a self managing sporting branch of NZ Underwater Association

The Underwater Hockey committee was form in 1979 as a sub committee of the Sporting Committee on New Zealand Underwater Association. The committee consisted of 6 members 2 Northern, 2 Central, 2 Southern. D Parore was the Chair with D Weymss, M Stoke, M Bird, C Trousellott, B Hipkins.

In 2000 New Zealand Underwater Hockey Committee was rebranded Underwater Hockey New Zealand and in 2009 the Underwater Hockey committee incorporated to become Underwater Hockey New Zealand Inc and is a sporting branch of New Zealand Underwater Association

New Zealand Underwater Association Inc maintains the government recognition for the National sporting Organization for all Underwater Sports in New Zealand as well as the maintaining membership of CMAS.

References[edit]
50 Years of New Zealand Underwater- History of Underwater Hockey in New Zealand 1974-2003 M Brooks

External Links[edit]

 * Official CMAS UWH Commission page
 * Alan Blake - How Octopush was created
 * Championship Records
 * New Zealand Secondary School Sport
 * New Zealand Underwater Association
 * Underwater Hockey New Zealand
 * Auckland Underwater Hockey Association
 * Wellington Underwater Hockey Association