Canty return hockey shield

ROBERT VAN ROYEN Canterbury Hockey has handed back the Ramesh Patel Shield it was wrongly presented with less than a fortnight ago.

After the Canterbury Cats won the women’s National Hockey League (NHL) in Whangarei, Canterbury Hockey was presented with the Shield, which is awarded to the best overall performing region through the under-18, under-21 and NHL tournaments.

However, a few days after returning to Christchurch with the award, Canterbury Hockey chief executive Rod Templeton was told Midlands was the rightful winner.

‘‘We were thrilled to have won it because it is recognised within the hockey associations, and it represents such an iconic name in New Zealand hockey,’’ Templeton said.

‘‘But they re-looked at the rules around it and found that on the countback Midlands actually had one more point than us.’’

Hockey New Zealand initially suggested Canterbury and Midlands share the Shield named after Ramesh Patel, who played 122 tests for New Zealand.

‘‘We communicated with Hockey NZ and Midlands and said, ‘ under the rules, you won it, you deserve it, you should hold it’.

‘‘We’re very much of the view that we did come second, albeit by a hair’s breadth, and as we said to Midlands, they better be careful because we’re going to win it next year.’’

Canterbury and Midlands were tied for points this year, and a tiebreaker determined the winner based on how many tournaments each region had won.