Ancient, awesome, Lardy Birds

It’s the taking part that counts. Right?

Well, that’s certainly the philosophy of Marlborough netball team, the Lardy Birds, as they prepare (or not) for their second South Island Masters Games.

‘‘The results are not as important as getting out there and doing it together,’’ says Molina Uhrle.

‘‘It was a lot of fun last year, so we thought we’d give it another crack this year.’’

The Lardy Birds have entered the women’s social competitive 30+ years category at this year’s games, in Nelson in October.

They are mostly women who attended Golden Bay High School together, with several now based in Marlborough.

They are Rebecca Dempster, Molina Uhrle and PJ Muir (captain) of Marlborough, Katie McRae who moved from Blenheim to Golden Bay recently, Talia Lynch of Auckland, Lisa Page and Keri Page of Nelson, Lauretta Haskell of Motueka, and Nikki Philpot of Nightcaps, Southland.

Molina, who is on the sidelines this year as team manager because she’s having her third baby in October, says everyone from the original team is back apart from one, with Blenheim’s Janelle Bailey out due to injury.

All except Rebecca and Nikki went to Golden Bay High School across various year levels.

While getting everyone together from all over New Zealand takes a bit of organising, Molina says the event makes for a great weekend away and is very social. ’’The emphasis is on fun as opposed to competitive.’’

‘‘They offer lots of social events, we didn’t go to them last time being that we were new, but we intend to go this year.’’

The team entered the games two years ago under the name Ancient & Awesome.

Despite that name, the women are aged between 34 and 44, and Molina says she met many others of the same age at the games. The minimum ‘‘masters’’ age is different for each sport, from 25 for swimming to 35 for others.

Marlborough’s entries so far show the oldest person entered is 85. So far there are 65 people registered from Marlborough, making it the third highest region after Christchurch and Nelson.

The South Island Masters Games takes place from October 4 to 8 at Saxton Field.

The early registration deadline is Saturday, July 1, with anyone registering by this date receiving $15 off .

PHOTO: SUPPLIED The Lardy Birds are getting ready for their second South Island Masters Games.