The Photograph of the Month for February 2012 is of the 1935 Indian team that toured New Zealand and Australia.

6 players and 1 official from this 1935 team were subsequently chosen for the 1936 Berlin Olympics - Dhyan Chand (captain), Roop Singh, Mohammad Hussain, M. N. Masood, Shahabuddin and Peter Paul Fernandes, as well as assistant manager Pankaj Gupta. The 1935 tour to Australia is described in Dhyan Chand's autobiography 'Goal': We left Colombo on April 17 on the S. S. Largs Bay of the Aberdeen and Commonwealth Line. Our boat was a one-class liner, we were quite comfortable about it. The ten-day non-stop journey from Colombo to Fremantle was pleasant. We passed through the Cocos Islands, which was the only piece of land we saw during our voyage from Colombo to Fremantle. We kept ourselves fit by doing P. T . exercises in the morning, and taking part in all deck games. There were the traditional festivities when we crossed the Equator, with members of our team getting their share of lathering and ducking. We reached Fremantle in the early hours of April 27, and were met by the representatives of the Western Australia Hockey Association (WAHA), with whom we motored to Perth. What a beautiful city Perth is! The Swan river and the drive will long be remembered by me. We played against the Western Australia XI at the Clairemont Show ground. It was an easy win for us. I scored six goals in this match. After the match we were entertained to a dinner by WAHA. We witnessed for the first time a trotting race at night. We were back aboard for the night, and early the next morning we left for Adelaide. At Adelaide we were given a reception by the Lord Mayor the city on May 2. Pankaj Gupta asked him if he could arrange for the team to meet Don Bradman, who was then in the city. The Mayor at once sent a messenger, and within a few minutes the great Don came to the City Hall to meet us. We were delighted to meet him. Don posed for a photograph with us, a photograph that I will cherish all my life. In the evening we met a South Australian XI and beat them by 10 goals to 1. The match was played at Adelaide's beautiful cricket ground. Don Bradman was an interested spectator in the match, and I was told later that it was the first hockey match he had seen in his life. After the match, we had a short sight-seeing drive and were back again on the boat to sail immediately for Melbourne. We reached Melbourne on May 4. After playing Victoria, whom we beat by 15 goals to 4, we left for Sydney the same night by train. At Sydney we played a Metropolitan XI on Sydney cricket ground no. 2, and beat them by 11 goals to 4. We spent a few days in Sydney and thoroughly enjoyed our brief stay at a small private hotel in King's Cross. On May 7 we sailed from Sydney to Wellington on an Union Line steamer. The name of the boat was Manganui.

Surfers Field Hockey Annual 6X6 Tournament 2012