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Sports correspondent & historian with |
While rugby union and league, along with cricket and football, are the major players in sport in our country, there are a myriad of other sports that have come and gone over the years.
Tauranga provides a localised view of a number of sports that attracted plenty of attention in previous decades, only to slip off today’s sporting radar.
During the ’60s and ’70s, the roller skating rink at Memorial Park, along with a multitude of rinks around the country, was a hive of activity. Practise upon practise was replaced at weekends with organised skating sessions.
Club members would sweep around the rink to music before the cones came out for speed skaters to dash around a circular raceway.
Speedboat racing was once on par with motor racing for public attention for several decades after World War II. The big race boats on Tauranga Harbour thrilled spectators gathered on the edges of the action in the Tauranga CBD.
Marching was a sport that drew women in their thousands to compete with military-style precision. An early Western Bay venue was Coronation Park in Mount Maunganui.
Go-karting, using lawnmower engines for power, was an invention of the 1960s. Early racing took place on a track at Ōripi before the sport evolved into the karting that is raced today at Fagan Valley Raceway outside Te Puke.
Rodeo used to come to town each year, with large crowds attending the annual stampede at Te Maunga.
Many of today’s youth are drawn to adrenaline-fuelled sports.
From personal experience, I have ridden the wave of a couple of big adrenaline moments.
As a teenager, I accepted a dare to ride in a bull-riding competition at the Putāruru Rodeo. Minuscule seconds of holding on to several hundred kilos of a bucking bull came to an end when I was sent flying through the air.
A second hair-raising experience took place in the 1980s when I went along for the ride in an aerobatic flying display over Wairoa.
Skateboarding is something I am sure I would have taken part in during my younger days. Tauranga City is well served by the TCC, with several excellent skateboarding facilities around the city.
3x3 basketball is another sport well supported by the local city council. The recent upgrade of Kulim Park incorporated a new 3x3 court.
Sport climbing is not for the faint-hearted. A vision to make Bay Oval more than just a cricket venue saw the installation of a sport climbing wall to cater for the growth of the sport.
It is hard to imagine the skill and speed needed to scamper up a speed-climbing wall.
While the sporting landscape is constantly changing, the value of participating in sport remains constant, delivering ongoing physical, mental, and social benefits that serve our country well.