Hockey

the Rowing IV tie. The new tie is royal blue with two narrow white diagonals. New House ties have been introduced to take the place of the unpopular and unfashionable knitted ties.

After a fine innings against the M.C.C., J. W. Stead was selected to play for the Young Amateurs against the Young Professionals at Lords on August 9th-10th.

J. W. Stead, S. K. Kazerooni, D. McLean, P. N. Baines and M. B. 1Vlarwood played for the Yorkshire Public Schools' Hockey team against a Yorkshire XI.

lbochey 'Retrospect.

At the beginning of the Easter Term there were five old colours left, consequently a certain amount of team building had to be done. Three or four players seemed to fall naturally into the vacant places in the team, but great difficulty was experienced in deciding upon a satisfactory forward line. Perhaps this weakness in the forwards and the lack of experience of the new members accounted in great part for one or two defeats early in the season. But by losing by one goal only to the Leeds Corinthians the team showed that it had distinct possibilities. Improvement took place very rapidly, and although we lost our second match by 3 goals to 1 against Scarborough the ability of the team as a whole to stick to it was evident. We lost to Scarborough because of bad marking of the inside forwards in the circle.

Our first win was not on our own ground ; it was an exciting match which was won by one goal to nil, and all the more exciting because our opponents, the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers, scored an equalising goal a second after the umpire had blown his whistle for final time. In the return match later in the term the School side won fairly comfortably by 3 goals to 1.

Our two stiffest matches were against Styx H.C. and a Yorkshire Hockey Association (Central Division) XI. We lost the first 0-6 and the second 0-4, but in neither was the School disgraced, for they were both very powerful sides. The Styx H.C. had seven county players, and the Yorkshire XI was also very strong ; and the score against the School for the County XI conceals our bad luck on several occasions in not gaining reward for clever attacking movements.

The best wins of the season were against Doncaster and Hull. Doncaster we beat 3-1, the School forwards showing more dash and snap. Our opponents had the hard luck in the match against Hull, which we won 2-1, for on two occasions their forwards mishit badly with only the goalkeeper to beat.

The match against Worksop College, unfortunately our only school match, was lost 0-4. It was played at Worksop on a broiling day on

a very hard and extremely fast ground on which the Worksop XI was very much at its ease. Our team was exceedingly discomforted by the unwonted speed of the game, and if we lost to better players we may say the School XI played with commendable dash and spirit right up to the final whistle.

The match against the Old Peterites, unfortunately, had to be cancelled. The School will look forward to playing them next season and putting them on their mettle before they go to the Scarborough Hockey Festival.

In summing up the 1935 hockey season one or two things stand out ; first, the steady improvement of the team throughout the term, and second, the ability of the team to " hang on " and play with dash and spirit when up against superior opponents. An adverse criticism of the team is that there were too many occasions when players were not using their head enough ; the ability to foresee in hockey, as at all games, is the " sine qua non " of really effective play.

The full record is as follows :— Matches played, 10 ; won, 5 ; lost, 5. Goals for, 15 ; goals against, 23. 1 match cancelled.

The annual hockey match between the Yorkshire Public Schoolboys and a Yorkshire XI was played on the School ground on Wednesday, April 3rd. In previous years the Yorkshire Hockey Association have always arranged trial games of Whites and Colours to be played before the XI to meet Yorkshire has been chosen. This year, however, such a match was not practicable, owing to the ravages of influenza and the late date of breaking up at several schools.

The School were represented by S. K. Kazerooni, D. McLean, J. W. Stead and P. N. Baines, while five Old Peterites, W. A. Clarke ('21-27), R. Ogley ('28-34), K. G. Chilman ('07-16), N. W. D. Yardley ('28-34) and J. E. Ruddock ('29-33), played for the Yorkshire XI.

CHARACTERS OF THE HOCKEY XI.

J. M. Atkinson (left full-back).---A captain with sound views. He was the mainstay of the defence at full-back, and made very good use of the long lunge tackle. He produced his best form at the end of the season, when he thwarted attack after attack. J. W. Stead (centre-half).—A greatly improved player on last season with a sound knowledge of the game, and apparently tireless energy—though perhaps his fault was that he was apt to do too much. A splendid tackler, but must learn to clear to the right more. S. K. Kazerooni (goal-keeper).—Also improved on last season's form and saved his side well on occasions. His kicking to clear from straight drives was good, but was liable, like most goalkeepers, to let the little flick and push shots beat him. But by keenness and practice he improved much.