NEWMARKET HOCKEY DAD BRINGS MEGAPHONE TO UNDER-13 GAME, REFUSES TO LEAVE WHEN ASKED
The umpire is 16. The megaphone is loud. The dad is unrepentant.
A Newmarket hockey dad turned up to his daughter's under-13 match at Lloyd Elsmore on Saturday with a megaphone he borrowed off a mate in Penrose. He used it for the full 60 minutes.
The dad, Hamish Petherbridge, 44, an accountant from off Remuera Road, denied he'd done anything wrong. "I'm supporting my kid. If the umpire can't take feedback at volume she shouldn't be holding the bloody whistle. It's a sport, mate, not a fucking library."
The umpire, aged 16, told a tournament official she could hear Hamish "from the carpark, through earmuffs". A green card was issued. Hamish escalated.
Other parents had driven over the bridge from Birkenhead specifically to avoid a morning like this. "He called a 13-year-old defender a lazy unit through the megaphone," one mum said. "Her grandmother was standing right there. Her grandmother is on the board."
A Counties Manukau Hockey spokesperson said megaphones were "not banned but now under urgent review". Hamish was asked to leave the turf three times before he went, still talking into the megaphone, all the way back to his Amarok.
Hamish's daughter, asked for comment, said she was getting the bus home.
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Reader Letters
Trev_Hornby
Bloody classic, ain't it? Guy just trying to support his kid. This country's going soft.
Garry (Halswell)
Back in my day, we'd never have needed a megaphone 'cause no one was too precious to cop a bit of heckling. Nowadays, everyone's got their knickers in a twist.
reply_guy_expert123
@Garry (Halswell) Mate, you had me until the 'knickers' part. It's not about being too precious, it's about respecting the young umpire trying to do a tough job.
hockey_mum_NW
My daughter's in the team and she doesn't need some knob shouting into a bloody megaphone. We're there to play, not listen to the unhinged soundtrack of Hamish's life.
couchgremlin
Lol, megaphone dad is just the mascot we didn't know we needed.
Margaret_F
Reminds me of a man who once tried to use a Garden Gnome as a boundary marker at our local bowls club. That was '05. People will do anything for attention.
tired_dad_birkenhead
Why on earth would you drive from Penrose just to be a knob at a kids' game? Guy needs to get himself a hobby that doesn't involve shouting at children.
Sandra McKenzie
Hamish should be more worried about an audit at work than becoming an amateur cheerleader. Priorities, people.