Golden Oldies still going strong

OLDIES: The members of the Far North RSA Golden Oldies 8-Ball club gather for the annual prizegiving last week.

Golden Oldies Pool is still going strong, if the decent turnout for the traditional end-of-year prizegiving and get together held at the Far North RSA is anything to go by.

Of the event on Tuesday, December 15, longstanding club stalwart Arthur Simeon looked back on the past year's achievements.

"Another season of pool coming to a close, and even though the body wants to retire, the will to stay and play on is still strong and is evident with some fresh names featuring on the club trophies this year."

This year's major trophy winners were: Round robin, ladies: Chic Brown 1 ( first/ champion), Doreen Wilkinson 2 (runner up), men: Ron Berghan 1, Arthur Simeon 2; Morgan Nathan Pairs: Coral Cornwall and R Berghan 1, C Brown and Lou Te Haara 2; Nepia Trophy Pairs: D Wilkinson and A Simeon 1, Pansy Foster and Bob Mills 2.

Simeon noted the Far North RSA Golden Oldies Club was not only the last club of its kind remaining active in the Far North, but remained a very competitive one as well.

He recalled Golden Oldies pool being established in the late 1980s by the then-manager of the Kaitaia Hotel, Eddie Bidios, one of many 50-year-plus patrons who found himself unable to get game time in the local domestic competition (which is now known as the Far North Pool Association winter league).

Other local clubs followed Bidios' lead and formed their own Golden Oldies teams. This allowed a separate competition programme to be formed and it continued until approximately two or three years ago, at which point the RSA found itself the only remaining active faction still promoting the craft of ancients.

Simeon said two members there in the first days of Golden Oldies competition were still going strong.

One was Teti Wilson now 85, who was 57 when she first began playing Golden Oldies with Kaitaia only to jump on the Kauri Arms' bandwagon before joining the RSA faction. The other, Ronny Berghan, was one of the Golden Oldies competition's founding members and now 75, was still a force to be reckoned with on the green baize.

Simeon concluded with a Christmas message on behalf of the club.

"We wish all sporting clubs a happy festival season. Drink wisely and drive safely so we can meet again in 2016."