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

Sideline Sid has had a bee in his bonnet for a number of years, with the lack of a coordinated promotional approach to the number of major sporting events in Tauranga and Mount Maunganui over the holiday period.

The number of significant number of events that are on show in the first 11 days of holiday period that kicks off on Boxing Day, should be promoted under an umbrella of sport.

I counted at least eight major sporting events in the region between the 26 December 2012 and the 6^th January 2013 – yet when I came to google them, there was no website I could find where all eight events were listed together.

While there is plenty of hot air by Western Bay Tourism people, there remains a void in the overall promotion of the holiday sporting events, that brings a additional multitude of sportsmen and woman to the Western Bay. If such wide variety of sport took place in the likes of Taupo or Gisborne or Wellington, you can bet your bottom dollar, that the events would be brought under a single banner of promotion.

Boxing Day sees two of the long-time events take place. The surfbreaker triathlon at the main beach, which dates back to the start of the sport in the 1980's, opens the holiday season sports carnival. A unique attraction is the ocean swim instead of the more traditional flat-water leg.

On Boxing Day afternoon, the Mount Maunganui Mountain Race that crowns the King and Queen of the Mountain will take centre stage.

The Mountain race dates back to 1946 and is another unique event that started decades before mountain running became a fashionable sport.

The first day of the New Year hosts a new sporting phenomenon when the HRV Cup hits the Bay Oval at Blake Park. The best cricket players in the country will come to town in the smash and bash of Twenty20 cricket. The Bay Oval boundaries will be under siege in a game that has had a spectacular rise in the last decade.

Later in a day another traditional event will take centre stage at the Tauranga Domain. The annual twilight athletics meet also goes back a number of decades. In times past, our Olympic stars would stop off at the Domain on New Years Day.

A large crowd will take up residence for the afternoon on the 2 January at Gate Pa racecourse with the hosting of the Tauranga leg of the Summer Horse Racing Festival. While the fields won't rival Ellerslie or Trentham, the holiday crowds will push a bumper turnover through the tote at the Gate Pa course.

The City will be full to overflowing on the 5^th January with two high profiles events taking place.

The day will open with the iconic Port of Tauranga Half Ironman triathlon, where the best of the countries (and some overseas guns) triathlon stars, will go into head to head battle for the Men's and Women's Ironman titles.

Sevens Rugby returns to Blake Park with the BOPRU Provincial 7's being held. In what doubles as a de facto North Island 7's championship, the provincial sides will be using the Blake Park tournament, as a pipe opener for the National 7's a week later.

The next day (Sunday 6^th January) a second HRV Cup game winds up a hectic 11 days of high profile Western Bay sport.

Sideline Sid's Pick of Western Bay Sporting Attractions

Seeya at the Game