Queen’s Birthday Long weekend: Norfolk Island Interclub Challenge, 2010.
It’s a huge month of sport on the world stage – the Soccer World Cup, NRL State of Origin, Rugby Union Tests, Tennis French Open just finished and Norfolk is no exception with the “ Norfolk Island Interclub Challenge “ in which pride is definitely on the line.
What is it? It’s the ultimate challenge between all of the Norfolk Island Sporting Clubs, in each of their sports. That is:
Squash VS Golf VS Tennis VS Netball VS GAP (Gun club +Archery + Pistol Club). The competition is to see who is the ultimate, sportiest team !
The Bowls Club was in the mix as the sixth team but was a late scratching . (Maybe this is understandable as they do have the Commonwealth Games coming up soon!)
So - Game on!
The day started with anticipation at 9a.m. at the Golf Club.
We were in awe of the “elite athletes” assembled from each sporting code.
We teed off in groups of four and we cheered when our player started our day’s competition, by hitting her ball one whole metre down the fairway. The crowd packed on the golf club verandah was ecstatic! As netballers we aim to get as many points as possible, so we were so happy with our average of 11 balls per hole over four holes!
After four holes, there were two winners. The tennis team beat the netball team and the squash team beat the GAP team. To finalise the golf challenge, teams sent in their best putter.
Jo Kelly felt the pressure representing the Golf Club and Karen Menadue cleaned up for the Netball team – our biggest win of the day.
Next it was off to the squash courts for lunch and a squash and darts competition. We were really fast to sacrifice, (sorry girls), our four biggest hitters to play squash against the golf team. The golf team was so confident that they elected to play their joker card which allowed double points for a win.
The winners for Squash were the Golf team and a tie between the Tennis team and the GAP team.
The Darts competition brought out calls of “pub-rats” and “misspent youth”. The winners here were the Tennis team and the Squash team and Andrew Glenny won the Darts challenge, being the first to reach 500 points.
Our next move was to the Netball courts. The refreshments by this stage had definitely slowed some reaction times and made others feel a bit more invincible!
The Tennis team defeated the Golf team with some scary moves from Hose and some awesome defense from Amanda Cribb on goal shooter, Grub. With two sin bins, the pace was frenetic and bodies were definitely put on the line (e.g. Meg, Vanessa).
The Squash team had an outstanding game, winning against the GAP team with Tanya Randall from the Tennis team nailing the netball shooting challenge.
On we went to our final sport- Tennis. Here everyone played doubles and there were some great match ups. Our Netball girls – Toni, Michella, Debbie and Karen whipped the Golf team’s top seeds. (Payback from squash). The winners of the Tennis competition were the Squash team and a tie between the Netball and Golf teams.
The Tennis Club put on a great dinner and the “Inaugural Sports Challenge Presentation Trophy” was presented by Andrew Umlauft. Andrew was the organizer of this excellent event and we congratulate him and thank him for a really enjoyable day.
The final results were close –
The Tennis team won on 11 points; the Squash club were worthy runners-up on 10 points; the Golf team and GAP team tied on 5 points; and finally, the Netball girls were still looking fabulous on 3 points.
Everyone is looking forward to next year’s challenge.
Bring it on!
(Written by Suzanne Evans)
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