Sports News and Articles

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,

A small but very vocal crowd packed the tiny scaffold-like stand at Howard Booth Park in Carterton on Saturday to watch the Carterton Reapers take on a visiting Birkenhead side. The game, which I’m sure most would agree wasn’t the best technically brilliant football you’ll ever see, was however thoroughly entertaining and funny, and both the players and spectators would have come away happy to have been part of it. Carterton player and spokesperson Rod O’Leary explained that

The Giants Premier Reserve team had a tough start to the season, going down eight runs to four against a strong-looking Hutt City United team at South Park on Saturday. Missing a few players from last season, and still without their recently-signed Australian pitcher, the team couldn’t match the Hutt team in their first outing after promotion to the Premier Reserve competition. Veteran pitcher Tony Nixon stepped up to the plate, and despite his vast experience and skill I’m s

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

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

Recently appointed Wairarapa senior women’s cricket coach Patrick Wootton is looking forward to the new challenge. “Yeah, I’m pretty happy and looking forward to stepping up into the senior space and challenging myself and seeing how we can go as a team,” he says. This year’s squad has a number of new players whom Patrick has coached at secondary school level. “I’m looking forward to seeing what the younger girls can do at the senior level. So seeing how they stack up against

Despite not making it into the semi finals, the Douglas Villa U19 team had a somewhat successful time at the annual Bob Bamford U19 tournament played in Upper Hutt over the weekend. Placed in the toughest pool, Villa started the competition on Saturday with a good win over Upper Hutt, lost their second game to eventual tournament winners Wellington Olympic, and then Western Suburbs ran away with the third game, six to nil, leaving the Wairarapa side bottom of the table on goa

A combined Red Star/Lansdowne team and Greytown will play in this year’s Pre-Christmas Coastal Challenge cricket competition. Wairarapa Cricket Operations Manager Melissa Hansen said that just a few weeks ago things weren’t looking good for the competition with Manawatu reluctant to join in, “but after a bit of work they eventually decided it would be good preparation for the Furlong Cup.” The competition begins on October 17th and both Wairarapa teams have drawn home games f

Wairarapa Cricket has released the representative draw for the Wairarapa Men’s and Women’s teams. There are four senior women’s games to be played at the Masterton Oval in November and early December, and the senior men have two home games in January. Representative home games: Senior Women Sunday 8th November Wairarapa (vs) Hawkes Bay Sat 21st & Sun 22nd November Wairarapa (vs) Taranaki (two matches) Sunday 6th December Wairarapa (vs) Manawatu Senior Men Sat 9th & Sun 10th J

“I’m very happy and very proud of the team,” says Wairarapa United U19 coach Patrick Wootton after the teams decisive clean sweep at the annual Harbour Cup Tournament for female youth players at Wellington’s Wakefield Park over the weekend. The team played five games and won them all, and without conceding a single goal. Team manager Jen O’Donnell added that she was also very proud of the girls. “They played really well. There’s not a single weak link in the team, like you kn

The Wairarapa senior men's cricket squad held a training session at Rathkeale College’s cricket centre on Saturday morning. Coach Chris Jefferies and assistant coach Alistair Payne had the team in the nets getting in practice for the upcoming season. The squad has two pre-season warm-up T20 games against Wainuiomata at Wairarapa College this coming Saturday, 3rd October.

An estimated 2500 people converged on Memorial Park sports grounds over the weekend for the 2026 Douglas Park AFC Junior Tournament. 84 teams from Wairarapa, Wellington, Hutt Valley, Palmerston North and Dannevirke took part in this year’s competition. Coordinator Sophie Van wijk said that the annual tournament for teams in the 8th to 13th grades was extremely popular. “It’s a fun event. The main point is to get kids playing football.” She added that it’s a big event for the

Wairarapa midfielder Bethany Ifill has been selected in the Capital Football Girls’ U18 team to compete in the 2026 Youth National League. After a vigorous series of selection evaluations, a large contingent of applicants was eventually whittled down to the final squad of twenty-five players. Bethany Ifill with the trophies she was awarded at Wairarapa United’s prize giving on Saturday night. Ifill, who has shown impressive ball skills in her recent outings for Wairarapa Unit

It looks like it will be an exciting summer season ahead for the Giants Blue softball team as they move up from Premier 2 to the Intercity Premier Reserve competition. Club stalwart Allan Clarke says the club has secured Australian U18 national pitcher Jaxon Mulaga to the club. Unfortunately he will miss the Blues first game because of other commitments but he arrives in Masterton on October 12 so should be available for the team’s second game. Giants will also field a team i