Evening tourney bugged by the ghost-town blues

The 2018 NAKFA Sevens championship passed the halfway point and started heading towards the business end of the season on the Kaitaia College top fields last Wednesday evening.

However, organisers were at a loss to explain the reason behind the lacklustre turnout in week 4/7 with several teams not fronting, which made for one of the quietest nights in the tournament’s 16-year history.

Some put it down to the persistent heavy rain throughout the day (causing many to believe the round had been cancelled), while a nasty bout of a ‘flu-like virus currently doing the rounds had apparently taken out the majority of players in one team. The rain stopped just before kick-off and allowed what games were played to go ahead in mild conditions.

RESULTS. Prems, R1: ROTW 2 The Ballers 0, FNR 0 KC Crushers 3, Eastern 3 Mavericks 0, R2: Kaitaia Women 1 Transformers 6, ROTW 3 FNR 0, Eastern 4 KC Crushers 0, R3: Transformers 3 Mavericks 0, Ballers 2 Kaitaia Women 0; Social, R1: NZ Destroyers 0 Kta Hooners 1, UP&GOs 0 JNL Tri Hards 3, Dream Team 0 Black Rarawa 5, R2: Invisible Men 0 Red Rarawa 3, NZ Destroyers 3 UP&GO’s 0, Dream Team 0 JNL TriHards 1, R3: Red Rarawa 0 Black Rarawa 6, Kta Hooners 3 Invisible Men 0. * indicates default (3-0 win).

STANDINGS. Prems: Eastern (goals for/ against 30/0) 26 points, Rest of the World (18/3) 19, Transformers (25/5) 18, KC Crushers (11/12) 13, The Ballers (8/20) 9, Mavericks (3/24) 4, Kaitaia Women (6/23) 3, Far North Roading (0/24) 0; Social: Black Rarawa (36/5) 21, NZ Destroyers (17/13) 16, JNL Tri Hards (23/7) 18, Red Rarawa (10/13) 14, KC Hooners (13/15) 12, Dream Team (11/20) 7, UP&GO’s (9/31) 3, Invisible Men (0/26) 0.

DRAW (for tomorrow night, week 5). Prems, R1 at 6.15pm: ROTW vs Eastern, KC Crushers vs Transformers, Mavericks vs The Ballers, R2 at 6.45pm: Far North Roading* vs Kta Women, ROTW vs KC Crushers, Transformers vs The Ballers, R3 at 7.15pm: Kta Women vs Mavericks, Far North Roading* vs Eastern.

Social, 6.15pm: NZ Destroyers vs Dream Team, JNL Tri Hards vs Red Rarawa, Black Rarawa vs Kta Hooners, 6.45pm: UP&GO’s vs Invisible Men*, Destroyers vs TriHards, Red Rarawa vs Hooners, 7.15pm: Invisible Men* vs Black Rarawa, UP&GO’s vs Dream Team.

* indicates the team will default so a 3-nil win will be awarded to opposition and a friendly game organised. As always, teams are reminded to audit their own results and standings as organisers cannot be relied on to be accurate.

"Organisers were at a loss to explain the reason behind the lacklustre turnout in week 4/7 with several teams not fronting, which made for one of the quietest nights in the tournament’s 16-year history."

(1) Boots (2) Pacific Ocean (3) Daphne de Maurier (4) Subscriber Identity Module (5) Scotland (6) Dunedin (7) Scotland Yard (8) Halfback (9) Lighthouse (10) Nine.

7-10 Excellent! 5-6 Very good. 1-4 Room for improvement.

Across

1. An official command from the perverse dictator

(5)

4. Spotted the grinder in the timber processing yard

(7)

9. Dry blankets strike gold in the hamper (7,6) 10. There is no room left on the emergency rooms

with the dirt oil filter (7,5)

13. Turn away from a French green ....... (5)

15 . ...... river (5)

19. A polite government worker? (5,7)

22. Inlaid muds Vi & I put together for originality (13) 23. Primitive leg anthropologist finds is a tad graceful

(7)

24. Dodgy psychiatrist was a bit of a roamer (5)

Down

2. Midget is found on d’ jetty we heard (5)

3. Is Albert able to go to the waterway? (5) 5. Jump out in the morning from a shrub? (6) 6. Means I’m really someone else (7)

7. Yet chalk may help you gain entry (8) 8. Shakespearean gobbledegook (5)

11. Comes back to exploit some spacesuits (3) 12. I arm crew and get tried for battle felony (3,5) 14. Scoffing at the balustrade (7)

16. I get on a kind of charge (3)

17. Appoint like a notice (6)

18. George gets away with the mortar (5)

20. Playschool chops out a metal compound (5) 21. International trials (5)