Sideline Sid Sports correspondant & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

At this time of year, Sidline Sid doesn't know whether he's coming or going, with the change from summer to winter sport.

In the good old days when Sid played rugby, the week after Easter break usually signified the start of the rugby season.

There was always a short break, where the cricket gear was packed away for the winter before rugby took centre stage.

A couple of pre-season games and the rugby year was underway.

Today, senior club players with any sort of ambition in the game are required to start training before Christmas. Pre-season games now start in mid February – when in the 1960s and 70s hitting the beach at the Mount, along with cricket, was the major focus outside of work.

Last Saturday the Bay of Plenty Club rugby season kicked off with the first competition matches of the season.

A reminder of what local club rugby was all about some four and five decades ago was provided at the Te Puna Rugby Club on opening day of the new season.

A reunion of the 1963 Te Puna senior team, who annexed the Tauranga Senior Rugby championship took place before the Te Puna Premiers took on their Rangataua counterparts.

No longer fleet of foot (but still full of cheek) the Te Puna veterans reminisced about games and players from the past. In the 60s, Baywide Rugby was just an unknown vision of the future with a strong Tauranga and Te Puke competition providing all the challenges that were required.

Local rivalry was supreme, with the quest to hold aloft the Jordan Cup in victory the prime motivating factor of senior club teams.

To make Saturday's occasion even more memorable, the Jordan Cup, which has become a Western Bay Premier Challenge trophy, sat on the sideline as the prize in the contest between the two long-time Western Bay clubs.

For the record, Te Puna got home by a solitary point to win 30-29 – what was a grand display of early season rugby.

The game went to wire with Rangataua crashing over in the last play of the game, only to see the kick to win the encounter, sailing away from the posts.

In recent years, Bay of Plenty Rugby has got the club competitions pretty right.

The top 10 teams from throughout the Bay of Plenty contest the Premier division, with the next 10 in the Baywide second echelon.

Local (Western BOP) senior rugby caters for the clubs with Baywide aspirations, with promotion/relegation allowing sides to move up (and down) a division.

The Katikati Club provides a perfect example of the pathway available to teams with Baywide aspirations.

After languishing in Thames Valley for several season, Katikati returned to Western Bay of Plenty Rugby four seasons ago.

With outstanding support of the Katikati community, the team from one of the extremities of the Bay of Plenty fought its way back into the Baywide ranks.

With a myriad of Katikati supporters on hand at the Tauranga Domain last August, they defeated Poroporo in the Division Two final – to earn a berth in this season's Baywide Division One competition.

Seeya at the Game