What will YOU do with YOUR big bowed stick? Ladies and gentlemen, all over our green and pleasant land innocent hockey families are being identified as criminals. The lucky ones get taken to a police station and their ‘weapons’ simply removed. The unlucky ones are herded into court and are stigmatised for the rest of their lives. Since the FIH ruling restricting bow size of sticks to a depth of 25mm people are living in fear of the Pritt Stick and the two Euro coin. But do we really need to buy another stick? Isn’t there a way of recycling the big bowed behemoths? We find out…

The Experiment

As players wanted ever more powerful drag flicks so the stick manufacturers increased bow size to facilitate this. It means most hockey families have in their possession at least one stick that can not only flick at 100km/hr but could also disembowel a cow in one clean swoop. Indeed in May 2004 Police thwarted what would have been Britain's biggest robbery at Heathrow Airport. The gang had firearms – and large bowed hockey sticks. So maybe the FIH are correct and we should reduce bow size? But can we perform the operation ourselves? Surely there are ways of reducing the bow and thus removing the need to purchase a new stick?

The Method

Clutching a brace of ridiculously large bowed sticks and the Yellow Pages we head out of the office to see who can help us ‘adjust’ the bows.

The Result

Banana Rating =

Test 4 Further along the road there are two council workmen. Strangely, one digs a hole, the other fills it in. Then they move further down the street doing the same thing. We presume the guy who plants the tree has called in sick. No matter – both look bored and they have access to a digger. The plan is simple: we whack the bow with the digger’s bucket. Plan told to council men. They laugh. Machine revved. Stick hit. Bow reduced. Easy!   Conclusion: Will work as well as the council men who created it. Not very.

Test 5 Our final stop is a car repair centre. Eric, the owner, calls us over. He has been watching us and tells us he has a great idea. There’s a huge vice at the back of his garage. “Clamp the thing in it and bend the bow out of the bugger,” is his inspired plan. As long as none of the oil from his clothing gets on the handle we figure it should work. But disaster strikes early on. He may be heading into his twilight years but Eric’s no wimp. With one yank too hard the stick snaps, Eric falls backwards and there’s one less lethal weapon in the world. Conclusion: Good for bonfires. Banana Rating =

HISTORY

The drag flick was "invented" by Dutch international Taco van den Honert in the summer of 1992 after a change in the penalty corner rules. Because the drag flick was classified in the rules as a push it is allowed to be raised higher from a penalty corner. This has created controversy as drag flicks, although being allowed to be lifted at goals, are as powerful as a hit and pose a high risk of injury to the defenders in the goal. Changes in stick design helped increase the power of these shots further and the specialist penalty corner taker became important to a team. The drag flicker was often not even part of the standard team but was substituted for a field player whenever a team was awarded a penalty corner (think Calum Giles). As soon as the penalty corner was over the substitution was reversed. It is not now allowed to substitute whenever a penalty corner situation is in effect but teams still have a flicking expert on their side. Sohail Abbas of Pakistan, Taeke Taekema from the Netherlands and Troy Elder from Australia are considered the best in the world.

ADVANTAGES OF INCREASED BOW SIZE

The ‘slingshot’ effect of a well taken flick enables the player to build up ball speed over an increased distance without the ball slipping off the head. It ‘energises’ the ball, spinning it off into the desired direction of travel. Because so much of the ball speed is generated at end of the motion a greater level of control (and disguise) can also be created.

An increased bow also aids ball control. When a player receives the ball with the stick held horizontal on the ground the bow ‘captures’ the ball and stops it rolling up the stick.

DISADVANTAGES OF INCREASED BOW SIZE

When receiving or hitting the ball with the stick in a vertical position it will ‘ride up’ the stick making control more difficult. Hitting the ball with the stick in a horizontal position will always send it left of the intended direction.

Receiving a ball on the reverse stick side is tricky as trapping the ball becomes more difficult. It has a tendency to slip under the shaft of the stick and become ‘lost’.

UMPIRE ANGLE

So how are umpires going to enforce the new rule? England Hockey instructions state: “If it is more than 25mm it will be confiscated if checked.” However this raises further questions. Is this just for the match duration? Will some umpires soon have a fine collection of illegal sticks? If checking is not compulsory then a player has nothing to lose by playing with a larger bowed stick and hoping it goes unnoticed. If the stick is checked and confiscated what does the player then use? Maybe an automatic one match ban would kill off the big bows immediately and the whole problem would disappear overnight? What do you think? Email editor@pushhockey.co.uk

INTERNATIONAL PLAYER ANGLE

“The reduction in bow size has had a massive impact - especially on the drag flickers. As a number one runner, it’s definitely fair to say the ball isn’t traveling as quickly as it used to and the speed-o-meter at the pitch confirmed it. A lot of other players struggled with bow size - particularly the forwards who tend to like a bowed stick. The moulds for some sticks, especially the 37.5 inch, were unable to pass so alterations to grips and tape had to be made by teams or it resulted in the stick being confiscated till the end of the tournament.” England player Richard Alexander on bow size impact at the BDO World Cup.

TOP 5 READER USES FOR ILLEGAL STICKS

1. “Put it in my ‘hockey museum’, also known as garage with loads of rubbish.”

Steve Cachia

2. “Great for getting socks and shoes from under the bed, closing unreachable side-opening windows, knocking things down from high shelves, replacing a slat on a single bed - the list is endless - there must be a market for a product like that.”

Conundrum

3. “The Swedish national team gave them away to Ukrainian children after the European national championships but I know people in my club who gave them away to youngsters who used a saw to shorten them and thus reduce the bow.”

NicFromSweden

4. “You can’t throw it away, boomerangs just keep coming back.”

Kilmory

5. “There’s a children’s playground at the local park needs a new see-saw.”

Dotty D

It’s the law gov’

“Any curvature along the length of the stick (the rake or bow) must have a continuous smooth profile along the whole length, must occur along the face side or the back of the stick but not both and is limited to a depth of 25 mm. The rake or bow is tested using a pointed wedge the point of which is 25 mm from the flat base or using a round cylinder with a diameter of 25 mm. The stick is laid playing side downwards on a flat surface in its natural resting position. The wedge is placed with its base on the surface or the cylinder is laid lengthwise on the surface. The wedge or the cylinder must not pass completely under the stick at any place along its length.”

FIH RULES 2007-2008 2.3(k)

If you melted down the 10,000 big bowed sticks currently in the UK you could make

AN ULTRALIGHT AIRCRAFT,  AN OLYMPIC SIZE POOL, A 35’ BOAT, 958 garden gnomes!

LIKE WHAT YOU SEE SUBSCRIBE TODAY