Youth was no match for experience on Friday when the past students of Tikipunga High School dominated their present day counterparts in the school's annual "back to the future" sports day. After losing the inaugural Past versus Present Shield last year, the past players were in no mood for a repeatand started recruiting players earlier this year. "Last year, we only had just over a week to get the teams together, this year we started recruiting about three months ago," past rugby captain Sonny Shelford said. After just being pipped in the match, and the overall results last year, Shelford said the past students were more plentiful and focused this year. "This year, we made a big effort after no one turned up last year and it worked out, we only lost the men's volleyball," he said.
The past team beat the boys in rugby 62-15, while the past beat the present in both netball games - 29-20 in the A Game and 23-20 in the B Game. The past had a narrow 2-1 win over the present in women's volleyball as well. The new sport introduced for this year's competition was women's hockey. This turned out to be one of the most one-sided of all the sports, with the past winning 9-1. "It was pretty hard to beat the past hockey team because it was loaded with top premiership players like Taranah Vette and Tania Crene, who all came back to play," school sports co-ordinator Glen Wynyard said. Despite the big scores, everyone enjoyed the occasion. Shelford said networking had already begun to ensure that next year's event was just as successful as this year's.
