Sports – 6th June 2026

Netball – Otautau v Waiau

Was an early start for the day and running a little we arrived at the start of the second quarter and it seemed that the Buckaroos had good control of the game against Waiau.

The first thing we notice is how tiny our Buckaroos were compared to the opposition, however the girls seemed to have their measure and were competing very well with good speed around the court and accuracy in their passes. The Buckaroos were solid in in both their defense and attack managing to gain a dominant scoreline by the end of the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter the Buckaroos dropped the intensity a little which Waiau took advantage of and closed the gap before the fulltime whistle sounded. I give the Buckaroos credit for the way they prove that sometimes being smaller, light and nimble has its advantages and a good win of 24 – 16.

Rugby – Otautau v Waikiwi

Next it was off to Waikiwi Rugby Club where Otautau’s Billy and the boys were to battle it out against Waikiwi. When we arrived the coaching team were running the boys through their pre-game drills of moves and ball skills, they looked like a pretty sharp unit and keen to get on with the game.

Once the game kicked off you would have thought by the first four minutes that the Otautau team forgot to bring their pregame practice onto the field and Jude and I thought this may get ugly as Waikiwi looked like they were going to run rampant over Otautau. However just as we were about to accept this is not going to be good, the team found the go switch and put in some hard forward drives and sending it wide manage to score 31-0 by halftime.

At halftime the coaches had plenty to discuss with the young lads who gathered around them confident that they had it all over Waikiwi. With halftime over the Otautau boys lined up for kick off, full of confidence that would soon be shattered as Waikiwi through everything at them and completely dominated the half.

It was a hard and nervous watch for the Otautau supporters who had their hopes high that a comfortable win was at hand for Otautau, however Waikiwi gradually kept breaking Otautau’s defense line with good forward drives and a backline that clicked into a very good attacking unit, showing Otautau that this will definitely be a game of two halves. With 4 minutes to go Waikiwi were one score off winning, a drop goal, penalty or try would win the game and the through everything at Otautau and through a final rally at defending they just managed to stop Waikiwi crushing their day. Well done Otautau for holding out on a poor second half and well done Waikiwi for not giving up… final score Otautau 31- 29 over Waikiwi.

Football – Queens Park FC

As it was an anxious end to Otautau’s rugby game at Waikiwi Jude and I decided to watch to the end so we arrived just before halftime for Russell’s football match against Old Boys. The score was 4-0 to Queens Park (Russell’s team) with about 15 minutes to go to halftime and it was obvious that QP had dominated the half. Before I started getting some shots I was trying to gobble down a sandwich when Russell received the ball and scored a brilliant goal right in front of me, damn I missed the opportunity of recording the goal. Never mind with the score now 5-0 I was confident I’d get another opportunity… then he gets subbed… bugger!

The game remained this way with QP attacking and defending well up to halftime. Now I will admit I don’t know too much about Football and the intricacies of the rules and fortunately Jude, Dave, Ruth and Arthur did and interpreted the referees calls for me. About 20 minutes into the second half Russel got back on the turf. There is a lot of talent in both teams and I have to admit although Football is not my favourite sport I actually enjoyed the game.