My mother came from a large farming family of—well, to be blunt—fairly stroppy, high-achieving females. She, like her sisters, excelled in many sports, with three of her sisters playing hockey for New Zealand and two of them captaining the New Zealand team. My father, and indeed most of the male in-laws in our extended family, had to quickly adapt to being regularly thrashed at tennis, golf, bowls, or any other sport they might have the misfortune to compete against their wives in. This laid the foundation for a highly competitive spirit and instilled the notion of "girls can do anything" long before it became a popular slogan. It also supported a number of us in subsequent generations to achieve national honours in hockey. 