All eyes on tiny Clareville
The tiny Wairarapa township of Clareville will this month become one of the unlikeliest international venues in world sport.
Clareville is 4km north of Carterton. Fewer than 225 people live there, so it is really just a speck on the landscape.
It is world famous in the region for its pies and for the nearby Taratahi pub, formerly a brothel.
The might of New Zealand and American women’s hockey will play test matches in Clareville on October 25 and 26, part of a plan by Hockey New Zealand to spread the gospel of its sport.
There have been some unusual venues for major sports events involving New Zealanders.
One that stands out was in 1910, when the great Dick Arnst defended his world single sculls title against Englishman Ernest Barry on the Zambesi River in Africa.
Arnst wouldn’t go all the way to England for the contest, and Barry wouldn’t travel to New Zealand, so they settled on a midway point – the Zambesi River, with the mighty Victoria Falls just a mile away.
When the scullers trained, locals walked along the riverbank, ready to shoot any hippopotamus or alligator that got in the way. But Clareville? In recent times Black Sticks hockey teams have played tests in regional towns such as Taupo, Tauranga, Whangarei, Hamilton, Stratford, Palmerston North, Mt Maunganui and Hastings.
The American and New Zealand women will meet twice in Stratford and twice in Palmerston North before they get to Clareville.
In November, the New Zealand men will play two tests at the Coastlands Kapiti Sports Turf.
It’s part of an international hockey week in the Wellington region – the women will face Australia in three tests and the men will play four against Japan.
Hockey New Zealand’s plan of taking its game to the regions is working.
The Oceania Cup for men and women was played at Stratford last year.
The venture injected $1 million into the Taranaki economy, players visited local schools, ticket sales went well and hockey registrations in the area rose.
In the good old days, there would be barnstorming international tours. Visiting teams would play 20 or more matches around the country, with the tests in the main centres.
Towns like Geraldine, Carterton, Westport, Greymouth, Te Awamutu, Eltham, Dannevirke, Feilding, Marton, Thames, Otaki, Motueka, Blenheim, Te Aroha, Wairoa, Eketahuna, Gore, Kaikoura and Balclutha hosted international games.
The 1934 Australian men faced mighty Malvern in Darfield. The 1956 Scottish women played Maniototo at Patearoa.
This is an important time for New Zealand hockey.
The men are off the pace, and tests against Japan will be a good measuring stick for them.
However, the Black Sticks women are a fine side.
They won a bronze medal at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. If they’d won the penalty shootout against England, they might have claimed gold.
The women lost to the Netherlands in similar circumstances in their 2012 London Olympics semifinal and lost the final of the 2010 Commonwealth Games to Australia, again on penalties.
Even though captain Kayla Whitelock and Emily Naylor are taking a break and experienced players Krystal Forgesson and Bianca Russell recently retired, coach Mark Hager’s team is clearly among the elite, so the forthcoming matches will be important as in the build-up to the Champions Trophy in Argentina in November and Olympic qualification next year.
Who knows? In a couple of years the women may be Olympic medallists and be able to point to Clareville as an important step along the way.