Dart on target for Masters World Cup

By Tim Howard

Nearly 50 years after chasing his fve older brothers and sisters around their Glenreagh backyard with hockey stick in hand, Grafton hockey veteran Dave Dart has won a chance to put on Australian colours.

Dart, 53, has been a fxture on the local hockey scene since the 1980s and played with and against local legends like Kookaburras gold medal winner Brent Livermore and NSW ace Robbie Green among others.

Now it’s the evergreen striker’s time to shine, picked in the Australian over-50s team for the Hockey Masters World Cup in New Zealand next year.

Strictly speaking it’s not Dart’s frst national team selection as he was picked in 2019 for a national Masters side, but COVID-19 cancelled the tournament scheduled for South Africa, leaving him wondering if he’d missed his chance.

“The next Masters World Cup is not until November next year, so it’s a long way off,” he said.

Despite the wait, Dart is excited at the prospect of representing his country.

He was picked after the National Masters titles in Perth in September/ October when his NSW team was controversially beaten in the fnal against Western Australia.

NSW had been unbeaten going into the game and fell behind WA after conceding a frst half goal.

“It looked we scored an equaliser with two minutes to go, but the offcials didn’t allow it.

“It looked like a goal, which would have made it 1-1, but that’s the way it goes.

“WA is a good side and it was always going to be close.”

Dart said the competition for the Australian team for next year had been ferce.

“Because it’s being played in New Zealand there were more than 70 nominations for selection,” he said.

“It’s great to be picked in it, because it’s a very good side.”

He said there were some players familiar to people in the Clarence Valley.

“Andrew Newton is a player who played junior hockey in Grafton,” Dart said.

“Adam Ellison, from Coffs Jetty, has played here and from Ballina, Grant Smith is in the team.

Dart said Smith, a Kookaburra from the 1996 Olympic team, was probably the best credentialed player in the squad.

“Those three guys are all players locals would be familiar with,” he said.

Dart said the National titles in Tasmania in July would give team members a chance to bond before the World Cup.

“It will give us a chance to have a training session before we get together for the tournament,” Dart said.

“When we go to New Zealand we leave been picked in the NSW Country team, along with another Grafton hockey luminary Rick Sampson and had gone down to Sydney to play.

Over the years he has seen Grafton hockey produce some outstanding players.

“Obviously Brent Livermore has been the best player I have seen play here,” Dart said.

Livermore was picked in the Australian team in 1997 and played in the bronze medal-winning promise and played their best hockey later,” he said.

“Because of the highway development, Jake has been able to stay here and play in Grafton on Saturday and travel up to Brisbane to play for his club up there as well.

“We’ve been really lucky that he and players like Rhys Cropper, have been able to play in Grafton while they’ve playing in Brisbane too.”

Dart has been a fxture in Grafton hockey teams for four days before the tournament begins we will get together for training sessions.

“It will be a sort of camp for us to get together. But a lot these players have played with an against players in the squad, so they’ll pretty much know what to expect.”

Dart said the national selection was the “cream on the cake” for his representative hockey career.

As a 24-year-old he had team at the Sydney Olympics.

He was captain of the Kookaburra team that broke the Kookaburra’s Olympic gold medal drought in Athens in 2004.

But he said the best player he has played against in local competition is current star with the Royals Hockey Club in Grafton, Jake Lambeth.

“Players like Brent and Robbie (Green) really left here when they showed many years.

In 2009 he was a member of the Grafton team, which won the NSW State Championship at Wagga, becoming the frst non-metropolitan team to win the title.

Locally he’s been a key player in the Bears team which has been a perennial top team in the local competition, just this year playing for Bears in the GHA frst grade grand fnal loss to Royals.