Firefighters take on pool contest

A whole generation of volunteer firefighters have served with the Kaitaia Fire Brigade without laying eyes on the Northland inter-brigade pool trophy. But not any more.

Ray Topia (ex-Kamo) and Ron Attwood won the annual tournament for Kaita¯ia, 19 years after it last triumphed, when Malcolm Windleborn and Peter Sullivan took it home from Russell.

Kaita¯ia hosted this year’s tournament, shifting its appliances outside and to various other temporary locations to make room at the station for enough tables to complete the competition in one day. And the players looked pretty relaxed, no doubt thanks to the knowledge that if the siren sounded they would not be expected to move a muscle.

A crew had been tagged for duty throughout the day, and no doubt into the evening, and it wasn’t hard to tell who was officially off duty.

The contenders

included Dennis Hewitt, representing Kamo, more commonly seen volunteering with Kawakawa’s vintage railway, who did his best not to give evidence of a misspent youth, and Lindsey Davidson, from Kohukohu, who insisted that she was no threat.

Her protestations began to take on a hollow ring when she potted two balls with one shot, but it turned out to be a flash in the pan.

Meanwhile other brigades will not find it easy to wrest the trophy from Kaita¯ia. Garry Rush said a new pool table had been ordered for the volunteers, with the old (refurbished) one to be sold.