Taupombledon 2008

With the sporting world left in limbo in 2007 when there was no Fulhimbledon, the sequel - Taupobledon - had been highly anticipated. As some of the best athletes from Auckland and Wellington descended on the Huka Village Resort, questions were being asked whether the relocation of this big tournament to the other side of the world could be a success. After two days of tennis at a level you would expect, and drinking you won't believe - the answer was a resounding YES!

As we all trickled in on the Friday evening, much concern was for the imminent arrival of the Owen-Burns pairing. Not because we wanted to see what shape these perennial finalists were in, but because they were bringing up the keg of Emerson's Bookbinder in their car. And considering their recent diversions through Wanganui, such concern was warranted (an escort through Bulls was in fact considered). It wasn't long before we had all arrived and headed off to bed early to prepare for the next day's tennis - yeah right....

No, as all good tennis pros will tell you, the best preparation for a big tournament is to stay up the night before drinking. And so we duly obliged. The keg was going down a treat. The tap system James had brought up was giving a great pour, the only issue was the lack of appropriate glass ware - but what's wrong with a mug of beer anyway? Some tried to get in some sneaky practice on the swing-ball, while others tried to help Jimmy see how many shapes we could put his bed into. The decision to cook up some bacon sarnies are 1am in the morning was also an inspired decision, and must surely help to explain the quality of tennis the next day. Foggy memories tell us we finally drifted off to bed at around 3am, with Taupombledon off to a great start.

When Saturday morning dawned, the skies were brilliantly clear. Much unlike our heads, which were under some heavy clouds. James tried to clear his with an early 8am pint of Bookbinder. And while you have to admire his devotion to the cause, hindsight told us it didn't help him with the following day's proceedings - on and off the court. After an athletes breakfast - bacon and eggs - everybody headed back to their quarters to get changed to head over to the courts.

Everybody looked slick in their whites (or near whites), the Federer-effect unmistakable, with the trouser look very popular - JT having even donned the blazer (reminiscent of his tweed wearing days). Once the keg was set up and the can of balls cracked open, it wasn't long before TournieMaster Tom had us out on the court playing. And it was tough going out there. Rallies were long and the sun was hot, and this required frequent draughts of beer and punch by boys and girls alike. Both pools were competitive and favourites were steadily trying to edge their way to the finals. Of course, JT won the award for being the most animated - though disappointingly didn't throw his racket....this time.

When the final did come around, it ended up pitting previous winners - Sam & Anna vs Mike & Iris. And even at the end of the day nothing could part these two couples, with the final needing to go to a tie-breaker after it was 2-2 after service games. What followed was a seesaw of fortunes and some great tennis from the girls. But eventually Mike & Iris triumphed and became the first 2-times winners of the much coveted giant tennis ball-cum-trophy.

With the tennis over for another year, the boys also got to engage in that traditional - but forehead numbing - game of tennis-football-header with the trophy. But with the lights starting to be turned down on a beautiful Taupo day, we all headed back to carry on the celebrations. The keg - which I wondered whether we would get through - failed early on the evening and with the evening coming to an end around 3am again, we were left to drinking some pretty watered down punch. And while it is questionable whether tennis was the winner on the day, our livers were most definitely the losers. Between the 18 of us, its calculated we got through a Grand Slam winning:
+ keg of Bookbinder
+ additional 6-dozen beer
+ 25 bottles of wine
+ 2 bottles of Pimms
+ 1 bottle of vodka

But despite some understandable grogginess on that Sunday morning, consensus was that the Taupombledon format was a resounding success. Thoughts were already turning to the next year, where the tournament will do doubt get even bigger with some notable pairings missing this year. After a cleansing walk around Huka Falls, the North/South divide split once again, with those heading south making an unfortunate stop at a dodgy Taihape cafe. Dodgy tummies aside, I'm sure everyone had a great weekend.

More pics from the weekend are here.

Rotorua-to-Taupo Anna Flyer

After plenty of badgering from me, and a lot of training from Anna, the big day finally arrived when Anna (and I) was competing in the 100K Flyer from Rotorua to Taupo. She has been putting in lots of training, and despite plenty of nerves and stress on her part, I knew she was ready.

We were staying down in Taupo, so that meant we had to drive up for the 10am race start in Rotorua. Despite some worrying forecasts earlier in the week, the day had dawned near perfect conditions - high cloud and hardly a breath of wind. We headed towards the rear of the 2000+ riders and slowly moved up through the waves of starters. We were finally off and Anna started off nice and strong. However, the cruel twist to the 100K Flyer is that it begins with a long steady climb out of Rotorua for the first 10km or so. Anna was finding this pretty tough (she always finds the first part of her rides tough, and the long delay between breakfast and actually starting the race probably didn't help either), but I knew once we had gotten through this climb it would be relatively easy. And the reward was a good long descent down the other side of the hill, and passing lots of riders that had gone past us up the hill.

The next 70km of the ride is then relatively flat, covering the rolling countryside of the Waikato. Anna really hit her straps and we were often averaging 30kph and having small groups drafting behind us. This was a very pleasant part of the ride and Anna was surprised about how quickly it went by. The only disturbing part was the amount of carnage on the road - I've never ridden past so many people being attended to on the side of the road or had so many Ambulances whiz by. It must have been at least four times that we rode past a rider or riders with strapping on cuts or arms in slings.

Fortunately there were no problem around us and it was pretty soon that Anna just had the last climb up into Taupo before the finish. She was pretty tired by now - which I would now say was probably partly because of dehydration, as I found out at the end she still had plenty of water left - but I reminded her that it was just this last climb. It isn't that hard of a climb, but after 90km it seems that it is (I should know, I had to do it twice in the Ironman), and me racing up it a couple of times to take photos probably didn't help. After a few 'false summits' and many "how much further Papa Smurf", we finally turned down into the last couple of (downhill) kms to the finish.

Speeding down the hill - picking up a few places, though I think more importantly to Anna, getting to the finish line so she could get off that bike seat - we finally reached the finish line in the time 3.46:17. That's an average speed of 26.5kph, which is much faster than Anna's usual average speed on her long training rides. So thoughts of being tired were quickly dispelled by feelings of achievement, and I was very proud of little Anna.