FIRE BOMB - New Zealand Fire Service
FIRE BOMB - New Zealand Fire Service
FIRE BOMB - New Zealand Fire Service
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Seven vie for volleyball glory<br />
Seven teams competed in this year’s <strong>Fire</strong> <strong>Service</strong> national volleyball tournament in Tauranga.<br />
By Michael Fleming<br />
Three were from the host city, with the others coming<br />
from Whangarei, <strong>New</strong> Plymouth, Wellington and<br />
Auckland (sorry, North Shore, as the team was quick to<br />
point out).<br />
On arrival at the venue there was a general discussion<br />
about one day putting together a separate masters<br />
tournament, but general consensus was that most players<br />
had probably already reached this point. The exception<br />
was North Shore, who arrived with a group of young,<br />
fit-looking players who could actually play volleyball.<br />
Hardly fair.<br />
A big welcome to the newcomers, the Stormers of<br />
<strong>New</strong> Plymouth. The team was voted most likely to be<br />
wearing a strange new outfit for each game.<br />
Day one saw all teams play each other twice in some<br />
evenly – if not all together legal – games to determine<br />
playing positions for the next day’s finals. Now you can<br />
call it competiveness, lack of warm-up or just general<br />
old age, but this packed schedule made for some tired<br />
bodies at the end of the day. On top of this there was one<br />
achilles strain, one shoulder strain, one back strain,<br />
one thumb and one ankle injury.<br />
Fun & Games<br />
Day two was finals day, with the standard of volleyball<br />
surprisingly high.<br />
The A grade final was contested between North Shore<br />
and Whangarei. If ever there was a ‘Young Guns versus<br />
the Old Guns’ game then this was it. In the best of three<br />
sets, the Young Guns from North Shore snuck through<br />
26-24. The B grade final went to the appropriately named<br />
Tauranga Dysfunctionals.<br />
Nine players were selected for the North Island volleyball<br />
team and congratulations go to: Fish, Malcolm,<br />
Karl and Chris from North Shore; Len, Mark and Ken<br />
from Whangarei; Woody from Wellington and Kiley from<br />
Tauranga.<br />
A huge thanks to Tauranga’s Kerry Gordon who almost<br />
single handedly organised the tournament, including<br />
airport pick-ups, shuttles to the hot pools and après<br />
volleyball venues.<br />
Next year’s tournament will be held in sunny<br />
<strong>New</strong> Plymouth, so we will see you there.<br />
The trip north was clearly too much for<br />
two of the Wellington competitors.<br />
North Shore and Whangarei battle it out in the<br />
A grade final, which North Shore won 26-24.<br />
The <strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong> <strong>Fire</strong> <strong>Service</strong> Magazine August 2009<br />
25
Change language