27 February 2021 

Following the Government’s announcement this evening to move Auckland to Alert Level 3 and the rest of the country to Alert Level 2 for seven days from 6am tomorrow, Hockey New Zealand has made the tough decision to postpone the Vantage National Masters Tournament due to start tomorrow.

The decision was made after discussions with the Bay of Plenty District Health Board, Tauranga Hockey and Tauranga City Council.

This was clearly not the news any of us wanted especially so close to tomorrow’s start and with so many participants having already travelled to Tauranga.

While we had prepared plans to deliver the tournament under Alert Level 2, we must now follow the Government’s guidance to stay home and not travel.

In making the decision we took into account the uncertainty of the current situation, the complexity of how participants have travelled to the event (many through Auckland) and the fact a significant number of participants from Auckland will be under a level 3 lockdown.

Hockey NZ decided it was simply not appropriate to hold a tournament of this size in such a high-risk environment.

If a postponement is possible, it will not be in the immediate future.

Please note the Tauranga Hockey facility is closed until further notice.

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