It will be a huge weekend for hockey players and fans as the Southern Series brings the finale to Gore, to play out a massive array of games as the season comes to a close.

The tournament will bring both divisions to the Gore hockey turf, as both the men’s and women’s teams get together after a season of placings to duke it out.

Eastern Southland Hockey Association chairman Aidan Forbes said it  would be a huge weekend as the best of the best would go head to head, including a big showing from Eastern Southland. 

“This is the highest level of hockey to come from Southland. It’s the strongest teams from each division playing off.

“I’m looking at the teams who cemented their position and it’s looking pretty promising for the Eastern teams winning their finals.”

There was no surprise at the high level of competition coming from Eastern Southland and Gore, as it had been the result of some hard work over many years to develop a core group of hockey players, Mr Forbes said.

“The association has been working hard for some time. The likes of Vince Aynsley and Nick Roy, who  10 years ago started right out at the grassroots level trying to get as many of the primary schools involved in junior hockey.

“It’s just grown and followed throughout the levels. We’re considerably smaller on a population basis than Invercargill, but still fielding the same number of teams.”

This commitment and investment in Eastern Southland hockey had paid dividends and he believed it would continue to do so for many years to come, as the Southern Series finale showed just how much success they had achieved, Mr Forbes said.

“Longstanding members of the association have really put in a lot of work to make sure that we are growing, whereas many other regions are dropping off.

“I think that if we can keep growing the sport as we have been doing, then it will just mean that we will get stronger and stronger.”

The public were more than welcome to come out and watch the games this weekend, he said.

The division 2 men will play at 10.30am on Saturday, followed by division 2 women at noon.

Division 1 will begikn with the Men’s game at 1.45pm, followed up by the final game of the Southern Series, the Division 1 Women, at 3.30pm.

The Hockey Turf will also be getting a revamp in the months to come, as the turf will be replaced and redone, which Mr Forbes said could not be done without the support of major funders, The Trusts Community Foundation, Community Trust Southland and the Lotteries Trust.