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The Kaipara Flats Silver Sticks had a sensational season, going unbeaten in the Mahurangi Junior Hockey Club winter round robin.
The team topped it off by taking out the end of season fun tournament in division A, as well as the award for good sportsmanship.
In the junior division, the competition was close with only two points between the top two teams. Warkworth Pumas just beat the Kaipara Flats Small Sticks in the round robin.
But in a reversal of fortunes, the Warkworth Jaguars played hard and won the junior division on tournament day, with the Pumas taking second place.
This year, there were six teams in the years one to four division and 10 teams in the division.
President Lisa Berger says numbers were good this season, driven by a successful ‘have a go’ day that 40 kids attended.
She says consistently hosting the games at the Warkworth Hockey Turf on a Saturday, instead of a home and away format has been a major selling point.
The competition has teams from Matakana, Leigh, Snells, Warkworth, Wellsford, Kaipara Flats and Horizon School. Juniors play on a quarter court, while seniors play on a half court and use conventional rules such as penalty corners and scoring only within the ‘D’.
Berger says at this stage, the club is trying to encourage a sense of fair play and good sportsmanship among players.
“When one team gets too far ahead in a game, we ask coaches to switch their best players into a different position to make it more challenging for them.”
This year, all the umpires were college students, who also took over the fun sticks classes where Year 0 do drills on Saturday mornings.
