The Kurangaituku Netball Tournament celebrates 90 years this year. Photo / Supplied
A lot has changed in 90 years on a netball court - but one thing has remained the same is Rotorua’s Kurangaituku Netball Tournament.
This year’s tournament, which starts tomorrow, marks the 90th anniversary of an event that brings hundreds of women to Rotorua over three weekends to play the game they love.
Among those who religiously flock to Rotorua is the Jolly Netball Club from Auckland.
This year marks its anniversary, too - having come to Kurangaituku every year for the past 50 years.
Lee-Ann Buckley-Frandi said the Jolly Netball Club was founded in 1975 in Auckland by the six Leef sisters, originally from Panguru in Hokianga, together with cousins and friends.
Originally sponsored by Jolly soft drinks, the team started coming to “Kurangai”, as it’s affectionately known, in the first year they formed and haven’t missed a tournament since.
Four generations of the Leef whānau have taken the court in Jolly colours, continuing the family legacy.
The youngest sister, Magdalene Makiha, 67, still plays, alongside the first of the fourth-generation mokopuna, Mya-Sky Rapata, aged 15.
Buckley-Frandi said this year Jolly has four teams on the court, featuring combinations of mums and daughters, sisters, cousins and friends, to celebrate 50 years of Jolly Netball and 90 years of the Kurungaituku.
And according to Buckley-Frandi, a fair bit has changed from the days her mother - one of the original sisters - came to the tournament.
“Our mums used to party hard, they reckon. They tell some funny stories, party all night and still turn up on Saturday in the A grade and win.”
Buckley-Frandi reckons the older women in the group give her generation “stick” for having “one drink and being buggered”.
She said it wasn’t so much a party-hard weekend now as most of their whānau brought their families, but she said they could blow out some cobwebs next weekend, given it’s a special anniversary.
She said Kurangaituku had always been a special weekend for their family and one they always looked forward to.
“It gives us new teams to play, everyone’s in good spirits, it’s a well-run event and a great way to spend time together.”
Kurangaituku started in 1933 and in nine decades only two tournaments did not go ahead - in 1945 during World War II and in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.
Organiser Mary Thompson said back in the day, the tournament used to attract big-name players and was extremely competitive.
But over the decades, it had become more social. Nevertheless, the popularity never waned and they still cut the entries at a peak number - 150 teams for the social grades this weekend, 100 teams for the competitive and masters grades next weekend and 100 school teams on the third weekend.
“Every year we think it’s going to be less, people can’t afford to come, but no, they still keep coming back.”
Thompson said over the decades Kurangaituku had brought thousands of people to Rotorua and poured millions of dollars into the economy.
Thompson, a stalwart of Rotorua Netball who has been involved in Kurangaituku for 47 years, joked she was making a big deal of the 90th in case she wasn’t around for the 100th.
Alongside fellow stalwart – treasurer Gail Wenmoth – and a committee of about 10 people, they have organised a 90th birthday breakfast celebration at Te Puia on the Sunday following next weekend’s games.
Guest speakers include former Silver Fern coach Yvonne Willering and netball legend Marlene Flavell.
The Kurangaituku Netball Tournament starts tomorrow, at the Westbrook Netball complex off Malfroy Rd on 16 netball courts.
It is held over three weekends, starting with the social grades C, D, E and F.
September 5 and 6 will be the more competitive A, B, C, D grades and Masters (ages 35-plus) with the 90th celebration breakfast on Sunday, September 7.
The final weekend on September 13 and 14 is the school grades from intermediate through to secondary (Year 7 and 8, Year 9 and 10 and Year 11, 12 and 13).
Entry is restricted to club teams only for the first two weekends and school teams are able to enter the third weekend.
The winner of the A-grade receives the iconic large wooden trophy.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.