The first mention of Underwater Hockey in NZ dates to 1963, when some divers in Nelson tried it out. However, it did not become an established sport in New Zealand until the mid-1970s.

Underwater Hockey was introduced into NZ from South Africa. It was established in Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington. The game followed the South African rules, and was played with the long stick. In 1980 New Zealand followed the rest of the world, and changed to short sticks, and adopted the international rules.

National Tournaments

Interprovincials (Regionals)

At first the Interprovincials were held at the same time as Club Nationals (the day after). There was time for only a round robin between three regions. The regions then were Northern (the north half of the North Island), Central (the rest of the North Island and the northern part of the South Island) and Southern (the rest of the South Island).

In 1984 the competition was moved to its own time and its own venue, at the other end of the year from Club Nationals.

In 1991 more regions were added, to reflect the growth of the sport in other geographic areas. Each island was now split into three regions, making six in total. The regions are:

• Northern (basically Auckland)
• Mid-North (basically Hamilton, Rotorua, Tauranga, Whakatane)
• Central (basically Wellington)
• Top-South (basically Nelson, Motueka, Blenheim)
• Mid-South (basically Christchurch)
• Southern (basically Dunedin and Invercargill)

Year	Venue	Men’s Results	Women’s Results	Masters’ Results
1979		Central	Not held
1980		Northern	Northern
1981		Northern	Central
1982	Christchurch
1983		Central	Central
1984	Christchurch	Central	Southern
1985	Lower Hutt	Central	Central	Central
1986	Christchurch	Central	Southern
1987	Lower Hutt	Central	Central	Northern
1988	Lower Hutt	Northern	Central	Central
1989	Kilbirnie	Northern	Central
1990	Kilbirnie
1991	Kilbirnie	Central
1992	Kilbirnie	Central
1993	Kilbirnie	Central
1994	Kilbirnie	Northern		Central
1996	Kilbirnie	Central	Central	Central

Club Nationals

The first club Nationals were held in November 1979 at the Lido pool in Palmerston North. It was attended by 18 teams. Auckland teams dominated, and the national title was won by Blue Fins.

In the early years there were A, B and C grades. In 1986? The Premier grade was added, to cater for elite teams that were obviously better than the A grade teams.

A Mixed grade has been offered from 1986, with the rule that at any time there can be only three male players in the water. Each year since 1986 a Women’s grade has also been offered, but there have never been enough teams to make it up. Teams entering the Women’s grade have been placed in the Mixed grade.

Year	Venue	Premier	A	B	C	Mixed	Women
1978	Lido, Palmerston North		Blue Fins
1979
1980
1981	Huia, BGI, Wellington
1982
1983
1984
1985		Taita
1986	Huia, Wellington	Taita	Island Bay	Portside B	Hoof Harted	Upper Hutt
1987	QEII, Chch	Taita
1988	Huia, Wellington	Portside
1989	QEII, Chch	Pakuranga					Portside
1990	Henderson, Auckland	Pakuranga
1991	Kilbirnie, Wellington	Pakuranga
1992	QEII, Chch	Pakuranga	Chch  A	Chch Varsity	Nelson U/W Club	Portside White
1993	Rotorua
1994	Kilbirnie, Wellington		Portside
1995	QEII, Chch
1995	Henderson, Auckland

Other Events

North Island Championships have been run in Rotorua since 1989?. South Island Championships have been run in Dunedin and Christchurch since 1986?

Underwater Hockey has been incorporated into the University Winter Tournament since 1986

A separate Women’s tournament has been held since 1992.

A Master’s tournament has been run irregularly since 1993?

International Profile

New Zealand teams have been of world class for the past decade. Our highest achievements to date have been World Champions (NZ Women, 1988), and Silver Medalists (NZ Men, 1992). In addition, the NZ Junior teams have been unbeaten in competitions with South Africa and Australia for the last two years. New Zealand figures as one of the top three countries in each age group and sex, with the other two being Australia and South Africa.

World Championships

Year	Venue	Men’s Winner	NZ Men	Women’s Winner	NZ Women
1980	Vancouver, Canada			Not held
1982	Brisbane, Australia	Australia (TT only)	2nd	Australia	2nd
1984	Chicago, USA	Australia	5th	Australia	2nd
1986	Adelaide, Australia	Canada	3rd	Australia	2nd
1988	Amersfoort, Holland	Australia	4th	New Zealand	1st
1990	Montreal, Canada	Australia	4th	Australia	2nd
1992	Wellington, NZ	Australia	2nd	South Africa	3rd
1994	Rouen, France	Australia	6th	Australia	–
1996	Durban, South Africa

Trans-Tasman & Southern Hemisphere Championships

Year	Venue	Men’s Results	Women’s Results
1981	Brisbane, Australia	Australia, New Zealand	Not held
1983	Lower Hutt, NZ	Australia, New Zealand	New Zealand, Australia
1985	Canberra, Australia	New Zealand, Australia	Australia, New Zealand
1987	Lower Hutt, NZ	New Zealand, Australia	New Zealand, Australia
1989	Perth, Australia	Australia, New Zealand	Australia, New Zealand
1991	Wellington, NZ	New Zealand, Australia	New Zealand, Australia
1993	Brisbane, Australia	Australia, South Africa, NZ	Australia, South Africa, NZ
1995	Wellington, NZ	South Africa, NZ, Australia	Australia, South Africa, NZ
1997	Perth, Australia

Junior Underwater Hockey

Year	Venue	Boys’ Results	Girls’ Results
1991	Wellington, NZ	(Australia Mixed, NZ Mixed)
1993	Brisbane, Australia	NZ, South Africa, Australia
1993	Hobart, Australia		Australia, New Zealand
1994	Wellington, NZ	New Zealand, Australia	New Zealand, Australia
1994	South Africa	New Zealand, South Africa	New Zealand, South Africa
1995	Wellington, NZ	New Zealand,	NZ, Australia, South Africa

This article is extracted from the South African Underwater Hockey Manual, first edition, 1993.