EXCITED: David Nancarrow is director of the Festival of Hockey. PHOTO SUPPLIED
EXCITED: David Nancarrow is director of the Festival of Hockey. PHOTO SUPPLIED
The Festival of Hockey director David Nancarrow says the region could play host to a more global home and away hockey league. He chats to mark Story.
What's new and exciting about this year's festival? Four top class International sides - New Zealand, Australia, USA and Japan - compete including thereturn of team USA who played here in 2015 and are fast risers in the world rankings. Two traditionally competitive and exciting NZ versus Australia matches in the round robin series are a likely highlight.
The eight-team schoolgirl Furnware Cup has the strongest line-up yet, including new visitors Auckland Diocesan and Palmerston North Girls' High school who will provide a formidable challenge to the four local schools competing.
And get along to watch the very competitive Affiliates tournament again being held at Park Island in Napier which includes the Hawke's Bay Men and Women sides.
How is the turf holding up? The drainage on the Unison turf is as good as you will find anywhere. Hockey turfs require water to play on and the Unison Turf has proven that it can cope with substantial amounts of rain, as happened at our first event in 2014, without disruption to the event.
As the festival's director, what's the biggest challenge? Bringing all aspects of the planning and promotion all together in a relatively short space of time. There are never enough hours in the day in the 2-3 weeks leading into the event.
How high do you think this festival rates in the Black Sticks' playing calendar? Very high. The Black Sticks are the defending champions and the tournament, which attracts top world-ranked sides, traditionally serves as a key lead-in event to major world events occurring later in the year.
I know the players very much enjoy their time in Hawke's Bay and the welcome they receive.
Where do you see the event in 5 years' time? FIH, the world body for Hockey, have recently announced a move to a global Home and Away World League starting 2019 so we are in transition to be potential home host, we hope, to all or part of a NZ home leg.
With the Commonwealth Games to be held April 2018 in Australia and hockey a competing sport we won't be able to hold the festival in our traditional March / April window in 2018. More than likely we will move to later in the year as a lead event to the Women's World Cup.
There is huge interest in the Furnware Cup, so potentially in the future this could become a tournament on its own with International schools involved. And we are exploring opportunities in other age groups - watch this space.
