| Subject: Non-controversial (I hope) posting: University Games |
Author:
Mike Lyon
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Date Posted: 01:42:51 05/04/02 Sat
I had the pleasure of being involved in the University Games on the 25th, 26th and 27th of April. This year Waikato had the honour of hosting the games, which saw the debut of some exciting new sports such as Ultimate Frisbee. Traditionally, the Games have been held over Easter weekend, but this year it was pushed back to Anzac weekend. This saw big increases in some sports such as rock climbing, and decline in others, such as rugby due to club commitments. It also saw teams travelling from around the country to compete in canoe polo. Initially there were ten teams sign up, but this number dropped back to five; one men’s and one woman’s team from Victoria and Massey, and an open team from Auckland. Unfortunately, canoe polo is virtually non-existent in Hamilton (Emma and myself are the only keen players), and so there was no local team entered.
Things started out being rather unorganised, the contact from the Campus pool and one of the main organisers was tied up with playing soccer for the University. Emma did a good job of smoothing over one or two frayed tempers from making a long trip to a more casual arrangement than expected. All the teams agreed to beefing up the draw by competing in social as well as competitive teams. That saw another five teams, all of mixed grade. We kicked off a half day of polo with some social games to get a feel for the court and the opposition. Massey certainly looked impressive, with the majority paddling glass and Kevlar boats and looking very much like a Viking protégé. Wellington was using the Hamilton Club’s battered fleet of acrobats, while Auckland sported a couple of Stingrays and their own bats.
Friday saw a 9am start which some of the visiting [cough-soft-cough] players deemed early. Many were nursing hangovers that day, and some sported sunglasses on and off the water (Willie). Blair Cooper generously drove over the hill to help with the referring and selecting of university squad. On the water for the round robin games, the Massey teams stood out, faster boat speed and strong leadership made for tough competition. Victoria had some good talent onboard especially in the women’s team. Sunday had the finals with Massey Men’s winning 4 – 1 (I think) with effective pressing against a defensive Victoria. The woman’s final was a nail biter, with the scores tied right until the last minute when a demon 6 meter shot from Kirsty Gibson irrevocably tipped the scales. The final standing were:
Open: Womans:
1st Massey 1st Victoria
2nd Victoria 2nd Massey
3rd Auckland
Medals were therefore awarded to everyone that entered the competition. The overall consensus seemed that the tournament was a success and that a lot of drinking was done over those few days in the mighty Waikato. Many thanks to Emma for her commitment to the organising of the tournament, to Blair for volunteering his time and support and to everyone that competed. I would like to extend a personal thanks to the Victoria teams that let me play in one of their social teams and in their Men’s team. One of the players from the men's team had an altercation between a car door and his hand, the car won. Apparantly it was legal for outsiders to compete in your team solong as you have 75% of your team enrolled at the representative university. It was great to see so many North Island players and no doubt will be seeing many of them again in the future.
Mike.
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