MALVERN MASTERS HOCKEY

After a three year wait since the last National Masters Hockey Tournament, which was held in Christchurch, in 2020, the Malvern Masters Hockey Team is readytohittheturfagain.

The National Tournament runs from Sunday, February 26thSaturday, March 4th. This year it is being held in Mount Maunganui, where the team started travelling to in March of 2021, only to be shut down because of Covid. Many events over the last few years have been e ected with Covid, including the 2022 event, so planninghasn’tbeeneasyforthe Team, so third time lucky! The Team are hoping to build on their previous performance from Christchurch, where they made the final and unfortunately lost toWellington.

There are around ninety plus teams competing across the grades in the Men’s and Women’s, sections so it’s a huge Tournament this year. The Team are lucky to have great depth with the expertise of five exBlack Sticks and the rest of the Team have been representative players throughout their time playing.

The Malvern Masters Hockey Team are hugely fortunate to have the support from local sponsors, who without theirhelp the expenses for a small Club like Malvern would be hard. The Club and Team would like to thank the following sponsors for theirongoingsupport:

• Property Brokers

• Penny and Ben Gough

• Livestock Exchange

• Bain Road Wines Ltd

• Canterbury Clay Bricks

• Challenge Darfield

• Kirwee Central

• Frew’s Transport Ltd

• Challenge Kirwee. TheTeam are grateful forall the support they receive, and love keeping Malvern Hockey on the map.

To keep up To up up--to toto to--date with date with date date how the team is going how the team is going how the team is how the team is keep an eye on the keep an eye on the an eye the an eye the Malvern Hockey Malvern Hockey Facebook page. Facebook page. page. page.

Malvern U3a

The Malvern U3A meeting held at the Baptist Church on Friday, February 10th, was fortunate to have Alan Blackburn Alan Blackburn Alan Alan as their guestspeaker.

His talk was titled ‘The Ming Dynasty, a Lens on Today with anEmphasisonPorcelain’.

The dates of the Ming Dynasty are 1368 until 1644, when the last Ming Emperor hung himself from a cherry tree in the ForbiddenCity.

However, theMing Dynasty gave the world some great developments. They started printing and made paper, gunpowder and the magnetic compass.

They extended the Great Wall, which is the portion seen by most tourists today, and they also extended the Great Canal. Theirmost famous build was the Forbidden City which took twentyyearstocomplete.

Art was very important in the MingDynasty,andthisledtothe making and decoration of Ming porcelain.OriginallycalledChina porcelain when it was shipped back to Europe via the silk route itbecamesimplycalled‘China’.

The porcelain from this period is beautifully decorated and fired to a really high kiln temperature to get the mirror-like glaze on the surface. The colours used werethefamiliarcobaltblueand white, as well as multi-coloured decorations with gold highlights on many of the urns and jugs.

Recurring patterns used were peacocks, peonies and the iconic Chinesedragon.

Riwa Alley Riwa Alley Riwa Alley Riwa Alley (born in Springfield, 1897 - 1987) found favour with the Chinese emperor and brought back Ming porcelain from China. There were some seven crates containing 1,500 pieces which were then donated totheCanterburyMuseum. As always, Alan provided the group with a well-researched, interestingandinformativetalk. Malvern U3A’s next meeting will have guest speaker Kimberly Wade Wade Wade talking about ‘TheRoleof MusicinRehabilitation’.

Jacky Lawson, Malvern U3A.