New tournament
The Cambridge Open will be held next week. Photo: Michael Jeans
Cambridge and Central Cambridge bowling clubs have joined forces to run the Cambridge Open next week. The inaugural national event will be held at Central’s greens – next year at Cambridge’s – and has attracted 32 teams of four players from throughout the North Island. The prize format is different in that winners get prizes straight after their successful games.
Team changes
Good Local Media team, from left editor Roy Pilott, senior writers Chris Gardner, Mary Anne Gill and Viv Posselt and journalist Jesse Wood.
Good Local Media has announced new roles for three of its journalists.
Mary Anne Gill will news edit the monthly Waikato Business News and Good Local rural publications covering Waipā and King Country.
Chris Gardner and Jesse Wood will focus on local body politics and Cambridge and Te Awamutu news stories respectively.
Ride complete
Hamish Legarth and Nicole Shields are riding for the World Bicycle Relief Expedition in Africa, pictured at the Velodrome in Cambridge before their departure.
Kayaker Hamish Legarth and cyclist Nicole Shields raised $30,000 for the World Bicycle Relief Expedition in Africa during an 80-day cycling trip through six countries covering 4500 kilometres. The two Waipa-based Olympians finished the ride at Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River at the weekend. They left in July.
Southern Links
The government has announced it will put up $100 million to progress Hamilton Southern Links project. Hamilton West MP Tama Potaka said the investment case for Hamilton Southern Links shows expected travel time reductions of 14 minutes between Tamahere and Hamilton west. The project will also support eventual access to 17,300 new houses and 7,100 new jobs.
Colour run
These four finished well. Photo: Michael Jeans
Over 1000 people got covered in colour and ran their hearts out for a great cause on Sunday. Kids in Need – a Cambridge based charity dedicated to supporting children in care around the Waikato – brought the colour back to Memorial Park, with a 2 kilometre course around the perimeter of the Hautapu Sports Club fields. There was also a fun obstacle course for under sixes.
Tocker, Turnbull win pairs event
Kevin Turnbull (middle) and Graeme Tocker (right)
Cambridge’s Graeme Tocker and Kevin Turnbull won the 2025 Len Gamble Memorial Snooker Pairs Tournament in Cambridge last Sunday.
They beat Tokoroa’s Alex Hale and Phil Wilkinson 2–0 in the final. Turnball potted a pressure pink to win the first frame and Tocker potted the last 2 reds with colours and then through to the pink to take the second frame and the match. A total of 32 players competed in the event.
Earlier the Cambridge pair accounted for Te Aroha’s Chris Skelling and Trevor Wootton in the semifinals where Tocker’s 64 break in the second frame was the best of the tournament. In the other semi, Hale and Wilkinson beat Shaun Coombes and Shaun Watson – both formerly of Cambridge.
In the Section Play, Wilkinson’s nice 56 break captured the Handicap High Break Prize. Tocker and Turnball could have been knocked out several times before the final – but a 30-point recovery qualified them. In the quarter final, their opponents went in off when the Cambridge pair required a snooker, and Tocker potted pink and black for an unlikely win in the deciding frame.
Tocker said the tourney was a fitting tribute to the memory of Len Gamble, “a friend of many and an icon of Cambridge Cue sports”.
Partners sign
University of Waikato Vice-Chancellor Professor Neil Quigley and University of Wollongong Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Max Lu
Waikato University will partner with experts in rural and regional health education from the University of Wollongong to help shape the curriculum for the New Zealand Graduate School of Medicine in Hamilton. Wollongong’s graduate school has a track record of educating doctors to work in regional and rural communities, which has helped address critical health workforce shortages in Australia.
Flood money
The Government has confirmed a $9.372 million allocation of the Regional Infrastructure Fund towards four projects to in flood-prone areas in the Waikato region. It includes $2.5m towards Waikato, Waipā and West Coast flood mitigation.
1000 up
Andrew Forsman (left) recorded his 1000th winner in New Zealand at Matamata on Friday. Photo: Nicole Troost
Cambridge based trainer Andrew Forsman celebrated his 1000th training success at Matamata last Friday when Berry Brown won the GCM Feeds 1600. Forsman has trained in a solo capacity over the last three years and has set up a base at Flemington racecourse in Melbourne.
Museum reopens
The old Te Awamutu museum building was closed for two and a half years.
Te Awamutu’s Roche Street museum was scheduled to reopen today after a two-and-a-half-year project to bring the building up to earthquake standards. Te Arikinui Kūini Ngā wai hono i te po was to attend a pre-opening event yesterday and on show will be Uenuku, one of the oldest known Māori carvings.
Targa tamed – Aussies top table
Targa 2025 – winners, Paul Dowie and John Allen. Photo Geoff Ridder Photography
While retro vehicles often stole the scene, there could be only one team to win Targa 2025.
Although recent weather saw its King Country stages cancelled, the five-day tarmac rally still saw Waipā play its part in setting the stage.
Aussie duo Paul Dowie and his co-driver John Allen claimed overall victory in their Porsche GT3 RS. However, Hamilton’s Charlie Evans and co-driver Carol Liston weren’t too far behind, finishing third in their Mazda RX7 – the same car Evans raced when he last entered the rally 20 years ago.
Union calls for penalty rethink
Rhys Hurley
The New Zealand Taxpayers Union says Waipā District Council, should review its penalty system for late rate payments.
In a statement released last week, it said a request under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act revealed the council had charged more than $1.4million in a total of 22,282 rates penalties in the past three years.
Taxpayers’ Union Investigations Coordinator Rhys Hurley called a 10 percent hit, less than a week after the due date, heavy handed – particularly given the levels of rate rises.
He suggested the number of penalties indicated an issue with the penalty mode beyond ratepayer “laziness”.
“When people have to choose between paying rates late and putting food on the table it’s an easy choice that’s only driving people deeper into debt,” he said.
“Waipā needs to flip the current model, and instead of treating penalties as another revenue stream, start treating them as a last resort.”
