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FEBRUARY
2004.
Story Archive
Bill shows
a lot of heart - 08.02.2005
By David Ogilvie
MULTI-SPORT: Seven months ago Bill Flyger’s heart, in his own words, "was
out on the table."
Yesterday the 67-year-old reached his estimated time in the New Zealand Masters
Games multi-sport event, and last night he competed in the canoeing races as
well, simply "because I have to meet Ben Fouhy."
Not a bad comeback, although Flyger admits that he had a good start in recuperating
because of his past involvement in multi-sport.
" Yes, the old heart was lying on the table a few months ago. I had a double
bypass, but I got back into training. “I always used to do biking and
kayaking."
Flyger, now from Hamilton, grew up at Turakina on a farm until he was 15.
" My grandfather Albert Flyger actually built the first (city) bridge, the
one with the archways. From there he went to a farm at Fordell, and had a blacksmith’s
shop on the farm.
" His sons all went farming, so here we are."
Flyger received a sympathetic hearing from his doctors when he outlined his plans
for getting fit again.
" They said take it easy and make sure I didn’t do anything too heavy
to hurt the chest."
A hard thing to say to a veteran athlete who also throws the shot put, the hammer
and the discus. He’ll also be doing the cycling time-trial.
" I’ll be doing those later in the week for the first time since the
operation, so I’ll be taking things pretty easy."
You can’t keep a good man down. |
Margaret right
on target 08.02.2005
By Andrew Koubaridis
PISTOL SHOOTING: Margaret Brown hadn’t fired a shot in her life before
she followed her husband into a pistol club one day.
" My husband Ray and son Phillip shoot so I thought if you can’t beat
them you might as well join them," she said.
Mrs Brown competed in the ACC Thinksafe Masters Games steel challenge pistol
shooting yesterday.
In order to be successful you must shoot fast and accurate, she said.
While all shooters competed against each other, the Browns had the extra incentive
of trying to outdo each other.
" Rivalry goes on all the time when you’re competing. Yesterday I
beat [husband] Ray and he heard about it all day, we enjoy it. It’s fun.
" Ray helps me with my ammunition and cleaning my gun, I wouldn’t
be able to do it without him," she said.
Son Phillip has held national titles three times and represented New Zealand
at the World Shootout in Brazil in 1996.
" Ray does very well too and is an excellent shooter.” Mrs Brown’s
involvement with pistol shooting extends further though – she’s the
national secretary for Pistol New Zealand.
" I’ve been doing that for eight and half years and I’m still
trying to work out how it all came about.
" I’m the secretary for New Zealand Antique Arms so the two jobs represent
fulltime work," she said.
Despite a slow start at the Wanganui Pistol club yesterday, Mrs Brown was confident
she’d find form.
" I’m sure I’ll have a blinder – it takes a while for
your head to click into the gun."
Mrs Brown is one of about 250 female pistol shooters in New Zealand, and more
are wanted. "A lot of them get involved like I did, because of family," she
said.
For more information on Pistol Shooting go to www.pistolnz.org.nz |
They're here
to have a ball 08.02.2005
By David Ogilvie
CRICKET: Some of these guys don’t play too often, and to be truthful it
shows.
But what the heck – they’re here to have a ball.
With a cricket ball some of the time, just balling it up at others. These are
the eight teams and 139 potential players in the ACC-sponsored New Zealand Masters
Games cricket.
Selections are done in an irregular manner, the captain is – in the case
of the Marton Old Fellas anyway – placed on the shoulders of the last man
to arrive, because the others didn’t want to do it.
So he lost the toss and they had to field in the rain. Happily the sun soon came
out and they had to roast instead. So Allan Pond will be decidedly unlucky to
be chosen as captain again yesterday.
Marton has a good, solid side, well placed at scrum time. One of their front
five, Porky Green from Hunterville, is said to have been at every Games so far
except the first one – "when I was being born."
They were playing a Games debutante yesterday – the Whangarei side Tane
Mahuta.
They were pretty scary too. They looked slim and ready to go, and most still
played the game in Whangarei.
They practised a bit too – twice at G and T’s Bar in Whangarei and
three times in the Springvale Games tent. Trevor Kelly is the team spokesman,
and he’s a former Wanganui man who left for the winterless north in 1968,
but has returned to play cricket in most Masters Games so far with a Wanganui-based
team.
" This year I decided to get a group of Northland boys into a team and come
down. They’ve never seen so many people in the one place (tent), had a
lot of fun, and it’s been excellent so far."
And out to the field they went. |
Games about
meeting people 08.02.2005
By David Ogilvie
BOWLS: The Laird Park Bowling Club is pretty much a second home for Jack Kale,
but when the New Zealand Masters Games are on, he doesn’t want to play
with his clubmates – he wants to meet new people.
So he enters as an individual, and doesn’t think much of the idea of entering
your usual team.
" I only ever enter as an individual, because that’s the way it should
be played," Kale said yesterday in the middle of a game in which he was
accompanied by Betty Hogg (Marton) and Wanganui cousins Doug (Durie Hill) and
Don Lynch (St Johns Hill).
They were playing visiting Australians Harold and Lynette Cox and Phyllis and
Tom Wason from the Aspley Club in Brisbane.
The Aussies, bless their hearts, just loved the Wanganui weather.
" It’s lovely and cool," said Phyllis Wason. "At home we
might be playing in 40deg and 97percent humidity."
Fair enough, maybe it’s not been as hot as we thought. But we digress.
Back to the Kale philosophy.
" If you enter as an individual, everyone gets mixed up, instead of all
these boring old farts playing with each other. I’ve got Wanganui area
people this year, but I have played with Australians in the past. Tomorrow an
Friday I’m playing with Les Whalley from Bundaberg in Queensland, and I’m
playing with someone different in the pairs.
" So that’s the way it should be. It’s the kind of tournament
where you come to meet new people. I’ve said to people that run this, that
unless you have a family team, you should all be put in as individuals."
Kale is having some relaxed practice for the weekend’s Wanganui open fours,
where he’s part of the defending champion team with skip Ian Porteous and
Warwick and Cary Pinker.
As for the Australians, the two women are sending their men home after the Games
and Lynette Cox and Phyllis Wason are going to tour New Zealand.
" Keeps us out of the heat," says one.
It’s all a matter of what you’re used to, I suppose.
Note: Bowls has something to think about at the Games. Entries in 1995 were 601,
two years later they were 512, and then when mixed bowls were introduced, it
dropped o a mere 146 in 1999. Two years later there were 233, this year it’s
207. |
Ex-All Black
laps up Games atmosphere 08.02.2005
By Iain Hyndman
GOLF: Former hometown boy and former All Black great Andy Haden was blown away
by the sheer size and the atmosphere of the New Zealand Masters Games in Wanganui.
The 54-year-old competed in his first official sport when he teed off in the
mixed foursome golf at Castlecliff yesterday with his wife Trecha as a partner.
The 4.2 handicapper was not hopeful of a medal given his low handicap, conceding
others with more modest statistcis may have the edge.
" It’s difficult to win under stableford conditions with a low handicap,
so I didn’t expect to be in contention and if thaqt means I’m
a bit one-eyed or have a patch over one eye, then the others probably have balaclavas
on," Haden quipped.
While it was his first time at the Wanganui Masters venue (and his first time
ever golfing at Castlecliff), he did help organise and play in a celebrity rugby
match during the inaugural New Zealand Masters in Wanganui in 1989.
Gold and silver were up for grabs at that event against an Australian side, but
Haden said his memory did not stretch back far enough to recall which colour
he won, which leads most to suspect it may have been silver.
" I have played a wee bit of tennis and rugby at the New Zealand Masters
in Dunedin and of course, I still organise the Classic All Blacks tournament
that goes to Bermuda every year. That’s very similar to the celebrity game
we organised in Wanganui way back at the start of the games.
" I haven’t been back home for sometime because of business commitments,
but it’s great to catch up with old mates and family. The New Zealand Masters
has grown so much – it’s an amazing experience," Haden said. |
Love finds
games galore 10.02.2005
It was love which brought the career policeman to New Zealand.
Bill Nethercott has just turned 79 and, along with his wife, is competing in
the croquet at the Masters Games. Nethercott first met his New Zealand wife Pauline,
40 years ago on the boat Matua when he returned to Fiji from New Zealand.
He was the Fijian police immigration officer, and the woman he met on the boat
came to see him for a visa to enter the country. He later proposed – she
said yes – and they both returned to settle in Taihape.
After a little pressure from his croquet-playing wife, Nethercott tried the sport, liked
it and joined the Wanganui Croquet Club.
And he's been playing it ever since.
The game, played on perfectly flat lawns, requires stamina to last the distance
and mental application to outmanoeuvre your opponent, Nethercott said.
The two-hour-forty minute game was played in a figure-of-eight through hoops
with four balls, and the two opponents played a psychological game similar to
chess.
The end result at the New Zealand Masters Games was, for Nethercott, satisfactory.
He took a silver in the 50-plus age-group.
The Nethercotts retired to Wanganui from Taihape 10 years ago. They play regularly
at Wanganui's Croquet Club on St John's Hill – the largest croquet grounds
in the Southern Hemisphere. |
“ Which
way did that go?” North Island Ferrets batsman
John Pinfold misses completely, but the ball doesn’t |
Serious to the sublime 10.02.2005
There was a little bit of serious stuff going on at Victoria Park yesterday.
Mangaweka and Hunterville were squaring off in their annual cricket match – well,
annual mightn't be the right word for it.
Mangaweka supporter-12th man Mark Hobson says the two farmer-dominated teams
meet occasionally, but never on a consistent basis.
Yesterday was a repeat of the match they had in the 2003 New Zealand Masters
Games, that one being taken by Hunterville by four runs.
Three other matches flanked the battle of the villages yesterday at the 2005
version of the Masters Games, but Hobson insisted this was the match that
counted – although members of Wanganui's Red Lion Tavern next door were
cock-a-hoop about their very first win in the Masters two days previously and
were hell-bent on repeating the dose against Wanganui United.
But that looked unlikely early on. Quote one Red Lion player: "Hey, that
guy’s serious."
But back to Hobson and the big match: "This is pretty serious stuff. We
had a beer/team talk at Turakina on the way down – both teams."
It can't be that serious.
Next door the Red Lion outfit was battling United after its win over Dunedin's
Pythons.
One Red Lioner was still shaking his head in disbelief: "Can't believe that.
I have no idea how we managed to win a game."
It might be true to say the victory had given the Red Lion outfit a dose of self-confidence – or
was it a dose of over-confidence?
Spokesman David Temperton hoped not.
Victoria No 4 was occupied by an assorted bunch from around the southern North
Island Ferrets playing Powerco from Wanganui.
The Ferrets are regular attenders at the Masters, most of them have done the
job several times now.
One of them was playing his first game of cricket for four years – his
last one was at the 2001 Games.
He lasted just a few balls. Now he's not sure how long he'll wait for the next
one.
But that's cricket. |
Time to go to work at the Masters Games. Canoeist Richard
Couchman moves towards the Whanganui River before the
multi-sport eve |
The mystery of the running leg 08.02.2005
By David Ogilvie
MULTI-SPORT: Wayne Patterson’s wondering what the "mystery" running
leg in the multi-sport event of the New Zealand Masters Games will produce in
two years.
Mt Maunganui’s Patterson dominated yesterday’s event, and therefore
was the first man into the "mystery" area of the run – which
turned out to be the Durie Hill Tunnel.
Contestants were warned that at the end of the tunnel they would meet an "international" personality,
and say hullo. They were also warned he wasn’t very talkative. But just
to make sure everyone went to the end of the tunnel, they had to find out whom
he was.
No wonder he wasn’t talkative. Runners had to check in with a stuffed version
of Mickey Mouse before they turned and headed for the finish line.
Just a touch of the quirky sense of humour of event organiser Mark Stoneman.
But everyone knew the answer.
" Two years ago they sent us up to the Cenotaph in the mystery part, while
before that we went all the way to the top of the (Durie Hill) tower," Patterson
said.
" I wonder what will happen next time. But at least Mickey Mouse didn’t
answer back."
The tunnel proved a blessed relief for the contestants from the heat outside.
" It was like running in a fridge," Patterson said. "Very nice
indeed."
Patterson was the defending titleholder – and four years ago he won his
age group even though he became lost heading towards Castlecliff on the bike
leg.
So he’s fond of the Masters race, even though his pet sport is paddling
surf skis and his next big events are the surf ski nationals, followed by Auckland’s "King
of the Harbour" race which will probably involve either a paddle to Waiheke
Island or from it to the city.
Patterson’s time for the event was 46min 57sec, Iain Dixon (New Plymouth)
was second and Rod Sutherland (Masterton) third.
Levin’s Ruth Ward was first woman home. |
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