Nelson players named in NZ masters teams
Fifteen Hockey Nelson masters players have been selected to represent New Zealand at the biannual trans-Tasman challenge series against Australia in May.
A total of 13 New Zealand teams will do battle against Australia in Whangarei on May 2-6.
Players will compete in threetest series across the 35s, 40s, 45s, 50s, 55s and 60s men’s and women’s age groups
Trials were held at North Harbour Stadium last year involving over 350 players.
In the womens 35s grade, Nelson will be represented by Jay Sigley and Diane Webb who were both part of the winning New Zealand team in Melbourne in 2015.
Karen Eden will be back representing her country in the women’s 40s grade, along with first time representative Jackie Day, who only took back up playing in goal again last year after a 10-year break.
In the men’s 40s grade, Jaron Steffens will be involved in his second campaign with the New Zealand team after returning with a bronze medal from the World Cup held last year in Canberra.
Gene Cooper and Mark Gibbons are again included in the men’s 45s team and both these experienced players will be pivotal in the team’s plans.
Veterans Craig Brett, Brett Butcher and Nick Perrott will be joined by Mike Gafa, who is moving up from the 45s into the men’s 50s grade.
These players have amassed over 300 international games between them, while newcomer Craig Mant has been named as a non-travelling reserve.
Tim Brenton and Jimmy Matthews have been selected in the men’s 60-plus team, with Gary Wilson also named as a nontravelling reserve.
The players will now undertake a busy four-month training programme which will also involve Nelson’s younger high performance players striving for places in the Capital hockey age-group teams which will be selected early this year.
The masters players will be helping out in a new high performance mentoring programme established recently at Hockey Nelson.