03/05/2026
Its a long one whanau, but needs to be said.... and after catching a breath and gathering some photos to share...
A huge THANK YOU to all our volunteers here in the Manawatū that made another successful weekend hosting another WBSC Tournament for the U18 Qualifying Series with Australia, America Samoa and New Zealand in attendance and hosting the two Junior Black Sox (Pango/Hiriwa) Teams and the MSA Invitational Team.
It indeed takes a village to pull off the standard of tournament that we pride ourselves in hosting.
To WBSC and NZ Softball for entrusting and supporting us with another international tournament. A big thank you to Sport Manawatū and PNCC for supporting another international fixture and to all our sponsors that supported us through providing resources/supplies or kai. Thank you to Volunteer Central, awesome support.
Our Grounds Crew headed by AJ Young who have worked on the grounds non-stop for the last six weeks getting our facilities up to scratch, weedeating, cleaning all the areas of our park, even bought a can crusher for the recycling so we use so many bins, ensuring our diamonds and facilities look s**c and span for our manuhiri, dealing with the mishaps of a broken window on D1 –You Guys Rock!!!
Vanessa and her Catering Crew catering up to 120 plus people for five days inclusive of the teams, officials, dignitories, WBSC, NZ Softball, Grounds, bar/catering staff, batkids and all the other volunteers that helped , ensuring we were sustain with yummy kai to last the the tournament – 5.30am – 9.30pm. Amazing ladies!!!
Tommy and her Bar Staff sustaining those that like to have a quiet beverage on a beautiful summers day of softball, well done guys.
Thanks to Sacha on the soundz, our wonderful Batkids, Latisha for helping to organise them and a big thanks to our local umpires and scorers for supporting the Trial Series Competition.
All the little jobs that go unheard off behind the scenes, finding towels for teams, providing stationary and team sheets for teams/contractors, providing training gears to teams, providing chairs for overseas visitors, fixing the power shortages, finding blankets for the cool evenings, batteries for the flat clock control, first aid supplies, through in a waiata tautoko, organising Uber Eats for breakfast (IYKYK), all part of hosting a tournament that make a kauta have laughs and fun whilst our teams and officials are making history.
Lastly a huge thank you to “Jo Te Rata and Lisa Aull”, ladies once again doing your magic and assisting WBSC Technical Control – Cathy and helping to put Manawatū on the map.
Thank you to our softball and Manawatū community for all that you do to make our tournaments a success.
