Mangatainoka builds for its big day in the sun

OPINION: Have you heard the Tui one about how more than 6500 rugby fans are expected when the Hurricanes play a Super 14 warm-up match at Mangatainoka Domain in mid-summer in January?

Do not scoff. In sporting terms, Mangatainoka is best known for New Zealand cricketer Mike Mason; until this. Tui Brewery intends spending thousands on the January 23 event.

Community groups will run the food stalls, the bar and clean up as fundraisers, and the army will provide security. Bands will play, the Tui Brewery girls will be there, guest speakers, temporary grandstands... Tickets will be limited as there's room for only so many stands. (See page 20 for more).

* Turbos rugby squad member and No3 hooker Bryn Templeman left Palmerston North last week to play rugby in Surrey and three days later was back.

He fell foul of immigration officials at London's Heathrow when they discovered he didn't have a sports visa. He'd been intending to reunite with the Chobham club in Surrey but when the officials found he was a paid rugby player in Manawatu, things changed.

He was held for six hours, questioned, had his passport confiscated, his bags searched and was then escorted on to a plane to New Zealand. Now he's back in the sun playing cricket for Old Boys.

* A professional golfer from near Calgary is stampeding into Palmerston North.

He is 23-year-old Casey Johnson who will be working at the Manawatu Golf Club for professional Andre White until mid-March. From tomorrow he will be running classes and clinics for beginners, juniors and new members.

A golf pro friend of White's in Dunedin, who employs Canadian golfers, made the contact.

* We must applaud Dave Kirk-Jones, the go-getter from Auckland behind the SaveOurTeams website.

In his quest to save the Turbos from rugby's big drop he has helped amass 30,172 signatures and has arranged a meeting with the New Zealand Rugby Union's Neil Sorensen next Friday. All of this is being done out of Kirk-Jones' pocket.

"Until the nth hour we will keep putting pressure on these guys," he says.

* Original Feilding Marathon runner Norm Pearce got a surprise last week.

A letter from his nephew in Wellington revealed his grandfather, Charlie Pearce, was in the All Golds. They were the first NZ rugby league team and toured Britain in 1907-08.

Charlie, a Cantabrian, played eight tests before being a selector and national coach. It came as a shock to Norm who barely knew his father and had no idea his grandfather was famous. "I'm over the moon about it," he said.

* The buckethead phenomenon is catching on worldwide.

Green Turbos buckets were spotted among the 74,330 heads crammed into Millennium Stadium for the All Blacks-Wales test yesterday. And another crew of them was seen kicking up a din at the Air New Zealand Cup final on Saturday night.

- © Fairfax NZ News