A new era in water polo has claimed an early triumph, with Hawke’s Bay Water Polo celebrating its first year by being named Club of the Year at the sport’s national awards.
But almost as big a prize could be a historic silver trophy once contested between water polo teams from Hawke’s Bay and the Gisborne area.
The Dulcie Carmen Cup, a standard silver trophy standing about 30cm high and thought to have been named after a well-published Hawke’s Bay author, hasn’t been sighted by the sport for years.
Photographic evidence shows the trophy was being contested in 1959, when the sport appears to have been fostering growth in Napier.
But with little other knowledge of the history and a new Hawke’s Bay-Tairawhiti rivalry sparked by rapid regional growth in the sport following the opening of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Aquatics Centre in Hastings and the Kiwa Pools in Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay Water Polo is keen to find the trophy and fully restore the tradition.
It’s that growth which helped Hawke’s Bay, one of 19 water polo clubs throughout the country to claim the Club of the Year Award, which was presented in Auckland last week.
A Water Polo New Zealand spokesperson said there are about 10,000 participants and members involved in the sport, and the Hawke’s Bay club’s own statistics – with an employed development officer already in place - show it could already be catering for as many as 10 per cent of the players in New Zealand.
In a year club numbers had rocketed from about 200 to 700.
A national spokesperson said the major problem for the sport is the availability of “pool space”, but wherever new pools and complexes are built water polo is usually part of the scenario.
Development officer Emma Collard said: “We are so grateful to receive this prestigious award after only been operating for a year. The support and love we have felt from our Hawke’s Bay community and wider community has really made this whole experience and journey as a new club unforgettable.”
It started with a small group at St Joseph’s School in Hastings but Collard, who when she arrived from Otago to take up her role, was surprised to see water polo was “so new” in Hawke’s Bay. She said that with “a good group of people” and knowledge of the swimming scene and pools the Hawke’s Bay’s programme had “grown exponentially”.
She was quick to highlight the input from Steve Knights, Ollie McGuigan, Jess Munro, Hallie Sullivan, Tara Knights, Tim Dreadon, Karl Peterson, Trudie Nettle, Amy Cowan, Rowen Hurley and Keith Bone, and there were others “too numerous” to record in one place.
“Our community is everything to us. Our committee members pour their hearts into the club, and the wider community always steps up, whether it’s helping with events or just being there for support,” the club had said in its nomination.
Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 50 years of journalism experience in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.