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A new feature where I write about local sport, sporting personalities, and the occasional opinion piece
Latest Sports News & Articles


Great season for Carterton AFC
I stopped to speak to Carterton AFC president JP Delamere as he prepared for a game at Howard Booth Park, about the club’s successful season in the Wairarapa competition. “Yeah, the mighty Redbacks won Division One, won the Wairarapa Cup, and won the Super League Trophy. The Raiders won Division Three, and the Royals were second in the women’s comp.” And the Reapers? “Yeah, they had a season!” I wondered whether there was any prospect of the Redbacks moving up to compete in t


Masterton Council Sports Grounds Survey
Make sure you have your say about the district’s sports grounds. The Masterton District Council has started consultation before making any long term decisions - but be quick and let them know your thoughts as the survey closes on November 4th. Let them know if you think the grounds are good, or need upgrading or more maintenance, or whether the district could do with more sports fields. Frankly, it’s not a particularly good survey which will tell them very little about the sp


Wai Utd U19's ready for Napier
The Wairarapa United U19 team travel to Napier on Friday to compete in the annual Napier City Rovers U19 National Tournament. In its 50th year, the tournament is considered to be the country’s biggest and most prestigious U19 competition. Coach Patrick Wootton is happy with the team’s first round draw, “it’s probably the nicest pool we’ve had in the last couple of years." The U19 squad stop to pose for a quick photo during Monday evening's final training session “Taradale did


Plenty of runs at South Park
A good-sized crowd witnessed a great afternoon for two of the three senior Giants softball teams at South Park on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately the Premier Reserves game was cancelled but the Premier 3’s and the women’s teams played some great softball and each scored fourteen runs to keep the local supporters happy. Bena Moeahu slogs the to the outfield during her team's 14-0 win over Totara Park The women play in the Hutt Valley Women’s Social competition and while the
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Wairarapa Bush could have been better
OPINION ‘It should of been a whole lot better’ is how I would describe Wairarapa Bush’s performance in this year’s Heartland Championship. Having watched every home game and read all the reports and comments from their away games, my opinion is that they definitely had the individual skills, the pace, the strength and often the hunger to do a lot better, however they often seemed to lack the ability to work as a complete unit, were guilty of switching off every now and then,


Plenty of work for groundsman John Fletcher
The cricket season may just be begining and the oval at Masterton’s Queen Elizabeth II park won’t see any action for a week or two yet, but for head groundsman John Fletcher the preparation has been underway for months. In fact work on preparing the block began almost immediately after the previous playing season was over. “Our first job was to scarify the surface of the block which is basically a machine the rips up the grass and a little bit of the clay. Then we put new gra


A chat with Mike van Woerkom
I sat down with Dalefield and Wairarapa men’s hockey manager Mike van Woerkom with a cup of tea and some delicious home-made cinnamon pinwheels (thanks Carol) to chat about Dalefield’s season, the great result for Wairarapa at the recent National Hockey Championships, and his involvement with hockey in general. MIke dressed up against the cold at the National Hockey Stadium during the recent National Hockey Championships Every time I go to the turf at Clareville I see Mike as

Winter Sport Photos will be offline soon
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