HOCKEY.
In all the general principles, hockey bears a great resemblance to foot-ball, the game consisting in driving a ball through a goal. The ball, however, is of much smaller dimensions, even where a ball, and not a bung, is used; and it is impelled, not by the foot, but by certain sticks, or clubs, called hockeys, or hookeys, because the end with which the ball is struck is more or less hooked.
The shape and dimensions of the hockey-stick are entirely arbitrary, being left to the peculiar taste of the owners. Some like their hockeys to be sharply hooked, while others prefer them merely bent over at the end. Some players like a very thick, heavy stick, which can be put down in front of the ball in order to neutralize the blows of the opposite side, while others can play best with a slight and springy weapon, that can be used with one hand, and is employed to tap the ball away just as an opponent is about to strike, and to coax it, as it were, towards the goal through the mass of adverse sticks.
The four sticks shown in the [engraving] are very good samples of the forms best adapted for use. Fig. 1 is much in favour with some players, and is therefore given; but for our own part we never could play to our satisfaction with it, the large and deep curve deceiving the eye and causing the player to let the ball pass through the hook, besides running the risk of entanglement in the opponent’s stick.
Fig. 2 is usually a favourite, but the angle of the head with the handle is arranged according to the fancy of the player. Some like the head to be made of horn, backed with lead like a golf-stick; but this formation is hardly necessary, costing a rather large sum, and not conveying correspondent advantages.
Fig. 3 is a queer and eccentric form, which is not suitable to every player on account of its weight and generally large proportions. We have, however, seen it employed with extraordinary effect by a player who was accustomed to drive his opponents into a state of considerable excitement by his faculty of stopping the ball with this overgrown weapon, and then planting it so firmly that all the opposing sticks could not get at the ball in spite of their battering. In this way he would save many a game that had well-nigh been given up as hopeless, and by thus checking the ball on its way to the goal, would give time for his own side to come up and turn the tables. The great hooked end of this club was bound with very strong iron wire.
The same player was equally successful with a stick the exact reverse of the preceding, and represented as fig. 4. This was a very slight ashen stick, with a small, but rather heavy head, so that when shaken it would bend and spring like whalebone. This little stick was used for darting among the struggles and clatter of contending weapons, and giving the ball just a wee pat now and then at critical moments, so as to edge it a little nearer the goal, and at the same time to knock it away just as the blow of the opponent descended.
The ball used for this game is sometimes an ordinary cask bung. As this would speedily be knocked to pieces, it is generally quilted with string, as shown in the [illustration], for the better preserving its integrity. Sooner or later, however, it goes to pieces, for the string is sure to be cut or worn through, and the cork soon gives way. Balls, too, are apt to get their jackets knocked off, and if struck hard will sometimes fly in the face of a player, who cannot avoid it at so short a distance, and do no small damage. A hollow india-rubber ball is very good; but the best that we have yet seen, was a common globular india-rubber bottle, such as can be procured at any stationer’s, with the neck cut off, and partly filled up by leaving a strip of the neck and securing it by the proper varnish.
It made a capital ball. Nothing could hurt it, and it could hurt no one. We have had it driven into our face at two yards’ distance, and felt little the worse for it five minutes afterwards. It would not roll very far by itself, but required to be edged carefully by the sticks; it never could get cut against flints, or spoiled by thorns or splinters; it was big enough to be easily seen if knocked into a ditch or over a hedge, and if struck into water it would not sink but come to the surface at once, bobbing about as if to draw attention to its presence. It remained in constant action for two years to our knowledge, had been employed for several seasons before we made its acquaintance, and for aught we know may be in use now. In fact, if it were only kept out of the way of a fire or an ostrich, we know nothing that would hurt the ball except burning or swallowing. Even in the latter case we fancy that the ostrich would be the sufferer rather than the ball.
Having now described the instruments, we will proceed to the method of playing the game.
As has already been mentioned, this game is in principle similar to foot-ball. Two goals are set up, at a convenient distance from and exactly opposite to each other, as in foot-ball. The same goals indeed will answer as for that game, only the cross pole should be lashed to the uprights at a much lower elevation, say three feet six inches or four feet from the ground, and the uprights should be within six feet of each other. Very good and simple goals can be made by taking long osiers, willow branches or brambles, pointing the two ends, bending them over and sticking the pointed extremities into the earth, so as to make an arch. A peg is driven exactly half-way between the goals, goal-lines are drawn as at foot-ball, and the ground is then laid out.
The players, having previously chosen their sides, arrange themselves between the goals, facing each other, and always having their left sides towards the enemy’s goal and their right towards their own. The ball is then thrown in the air, so as to fall on or near the wooden peg, and each party try with their sticks to drive it through the goal of the enemy.
The rules of this fine game are few and simple.
1. The game is won by the ball passing through the enemy’s goal.
2. The ball must be struck through the goal with the stick, not thrown or kicked.
3. Each player shall strike from right to left, and any player infringing this rule is liable to the penalty of a blow on the shins from any of the opposite side.
4. Each player shall remain on his own side, and if he crosses to that of the opponents is liable to the same penalty.
5. No player shall raise the head of his stick higher than his shoulder, on pain of the same penalty.
6. The ball may be stopped with the stick, or with any part of the person, provided that the intervening player is on his own side.
7. If the ball be kicked or thrown through the goal, or if struck beyond the goal-lines, it is to be fetched by the junior player of the side who struck the last blow, and gently thrown towards the centre peg.
8. Any player wilfully striking another, except when inflicting the penalty contained in [rules 3], [4], and [5], is immediately to be excluded from the game.
By means of these rules, the game of hockey is shorn of the danger consequent on the loose and unrestrained play that is sometimes seen, the sticks brandished in all directions, and the two sides so intermixed that it is hardly possible to discriminate between them. Many a person has been seriously damaged by such undisciplined play, and teeth have been struck out, or even eyes lost in the contest. By strict adherence, however, to the above rules, there is no fear of incurring any injuries, and this really fine game is rendered as safe as it is exciting.
As a general rule, a good player seldom if ever strikes the ball with any violence, but keeps it well in hand, trundling it along rather than knocking it forcibly, and endeavouring, if he finds it likely to pass out of his control, to strike it gently towards another of his own side, who may keep it in its course towards the enemy’s goal.
A bad player, on the contrary, rushes about without any definite purpose, shouts continually at the top of his voice, brandishes his stick to the danger of other persons’ eyes and the detriment of his own hands, which are sure to be painfully blistered in half an hour, and exhausts his strength and breath so early in the game, that he fails just at the critical moment, and sees the ball driven past him without being able to check it.
As a parting word of advice, let us recommend to our readers to play this game as quietly as they can contrive to do, and as a golden rule, always to keep the head of the hockey-stick close to the ground.
Above all, keep your temper intact, and don’t lose it even if one of your own side should make some stupid mistake, and lose you a winning game. Take especial care to keep strictly to the rules, and if your opponent should break them and render himself liable to the penalty, be merciful to his shins, and inflict the punishment as a warning to deter from future transgression, and not as a spiteful opportunity for giving a blow which cannot be returned.