Double glory for Federal

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Federal had two reasons to celebrate on Saturday as one of New Zealand’s oldest hockey clubs further cemented its status as Nelson’s premier club.

Federal left it late to secure a 3-2 victory over NBS Stoke in the Hockey Nelson division one mens final, following prior success by the women’s side who dispatched Waimea College 4-0 in the game before.

Craig Brett, who scored two goals for the Federal side in the men’s division one final and also coaches both the men’s and women’s teams, says it was a “pretty big thing” to have both teams in the final, let alone coming home with the silverware. “The women’s game was probably more expected but the men’s game could have gone either way. We were lucky to come back and take it out,” he says.

Federal has now won the women’s division one final nine times in the past ten years. It also won the Top of the South title just two weeks ago. But this is the first time in around four years that both genders had taken Nelson’s top prize in the same season. “At the end of the day there is a great pathway at the Federal club. It’s one of the oldest in the country, it’s well over 100 years old. We had eight teams out of 14 in the finals [over various grades] this year, so it’s a pretty good result.”

Craig says the women’s side is playing its best hockey in a number of years, having spent a handful of seasons as a collective, only filtering a couple of younger talent into the ranks each season. The side did well to mark Waimea College star Kelsey Smith out of the game, as it was all one way traffic in favour of the champions