Sports clubs busy as winter season approaches
Football competition introduced this season
The Golden Bay Association Football club is catering for its legion of young players with organised soccer in the Bay on Saturday mornings through the winter season. Players between five and seven years old will be able to take part in games just as they did last year. Football club spokesman Seamus Ryan said the games will be “all about having fun.”
“It’s nice and casual to make the game easy to pick up for the younger players,” he said.
Players in the eight-to-ten-year-old age group will be able to take part in slightly more competitive games each week. The club is organising a competition that will take place entirely in Golden Bay.
“We had about 40 boys and girls last year,” said Seamus, “But only a handful of them wanted to travel over the Hill regularly. It seems silly to tell an eight-year-old that their career is over so we’ve organised this little competition. It will be five or six a-side so that everyone gets lots of ball time. Keeping the teams the same throughout the competition will foster team spirit and teamwork.”
Seamus said that the club had tried this concept with primary school-aged players some years ago and apparently a cup exists for the winners of the competition.
“Each team will need a group of parents to help organise things,” said Seamus. “You don’t need experience, you just need to be keen on seeing kids have fun.”
The club’s registration day and boot sale is on from 10am to 12 noon tomorrow at the Takaka showgrounds. A non-travelling player’s subscription is $25 for the season.
Teams events feature on squash club calendar
The Takaka Squash Club is already in action after its summer recess. A new teams’ competition is running on Monday and Thursday nights, involving about 30 players.
“It’s really good because some of the people involved in the teams competition are new members who came along to last year’s national squash weekend,” said club spokesman Bruce Telford. “There’s another one planned for the end of March so we’ll be offering prospective players the chance to come along and try the game and see if it’s going to be their thing. We’ll have another teams event starting in early April. We grade the team members so each team has a number one, two, three and four. It means that we can allow for all levels of experience and no one has to play someone way out of their league.”
The club’s new financial year begins on 1 April and subs will be set at the upcoming annual general meeting, but Bruce said he thought it was unlikely that they would change much. “At the moment it costs $90 for a casual adult’s sub and $10 for a school pupil. It’s very good value when you think how much squash you can get for that.”
Coaching and encouragement for young bowlers
Indoor bowlers are looking forward to the start of their season, and new members are most welcome at the Motupipi Indoor Bowling Club, which meets in the Motupipi Hall on Thursdays at 7pm.
“Bowls is now a young person’s game too, and we encourage young members to come along,” said club spokeswoman Nancy Ward. “We have games and supper each club night and social bowls with the Collingwood club once a month. We give help and coaching to our beginners and plenty of encouragement to bowlers of all ages and experience,” said Nancy.
For more information contact Nancy Ward on 525 9491 or Sue Baigent 525 9259.
