2008 New Zealand Disc Golf Tour Event No.4 - Queenstown 8-9 March 2008 Wakatipu Tournies 2008 - The TD's Perspective Preparation for the 2008 Wakatipu tournies began straight after the 2007 tournies concluded. A TD's job is never done! Mental note to self at the time; remember in 2008 to properly organise the tape collection at Paradise and give timely advice about inclusion on the helicopter flight. Doh! Preparation for 2007 had been dastardly, with the team feverishly beavering away to complete major aspects of the course upgrade in time for the tournament, on top of the usual hectic logistics.
This year was bound to be easier and indeed it was. The media coverage was better than ever, with ear-catching radio adverts starting with smashing plates, then one partner explaining to the other that they weren't getting ready for a Greek wedding, but were practising for the Paradise Plates and Queenstown Classic! The remaining course upgrade work had been completed months earlier, with the Gardens course looking immaculate; Ground Guard for Africa around tees and targets, grass growing through it in a drought, idiot-proof signage etc. Uan, Regan, Nathan and I spent a full day at Paradise on the Saturday prior to the tournies, marking out the course and weedeating tees, greens, and even paths. Paradise had never looked so good, but inevitably the dream of a post-marking out round evaporated in our exhaustion. Following several late nights of final preparations, Friday duly came around, with Pete Crowther and Michael Proctor to collect en route to Paradise. Arrived at the Gardens to find said players, a mountain of luggage, and a rather frazzled Nigel Barnwell wanting a ride. Complicated manoeuvrings followed around borrowing credit cards, closed rental car shops, and foodless waifs, but the Jaguar calmly padded through the logistical jungle and eventually crammed everything and everyone into the Discmobile. A reliably lovely drive up the beautiful lake brought us to Paradise, where golfers suddenly appeared from all directions and multiple huggings and handshakes took place. The largest crew to ever stay over there had assembled for the 10th Paradise Plates! The funniest point of the weekend soon followed, when Rachel (co-resident with Per) informed me that Nigel had lit the coal range in the Annex, with the microwave oven still sitting on top of it! She had found it in the deserted kitchen with brown smoke billowing from it's bottom. This led to many jokes about Nigel's microwave cooking lessons and whether he was going to eat it all himself or share it! Finally settled into the Garden of Eden, where Marty introduced me to the lovely Deb and delightful Maia, then proceeded to cook up a delicious pasta storm. The fabled early night almost happened, then Martin Galley turned up to liven proceedings and inadvertently ensure another cog tightened on the rack that is a TD's lot. Saturday dawned well, with players having been informed that we would be starting on time (I can still hear the laughter!). Walking through the bush was required this year, which certainly made the Garden of Eden a lot more peaceful place to be. Raced up to the highest point with ropes to erect the flag, pissed-off that someone had cut and removed the pre-rigged ropes during the week. Arrived to find that they had removed the tent pegs as well. Didn't need this! Took off on a "short cut '' through the scrub to collect pegs from the basket and quickly found myself in deep jungle that even the Jaguar couldn't penetrate. Backtracked and eventually got through and back, erected the flag, and returned to base. Great to see Ming Kaching again after many years. The usual chaos was prevailing there, so got onto sorting out the cards for the Doubles and all of a sudden the players meeting was starting, well behind schedule. Help! The Doubles passed uneventfully, with a moderate wind adding challenge to the exposed holes on the grassy hummocks. There was close competition as usual, with the force-to-be-reckoned-with Marty de Haas and the disc-golf-machine Simon Feasey taking it out with a fine 41. Mario Cerniar and Craig McNab from Christchurch followed on 43, with five pairs tied just behind on 44. The wind kept up for the Singles, with the usual suspects leading the charge. At the end of another great day in Paradise, the unstoppable Ken Jarvis took out the Open with a 42, Brett Hailstone won the Masters with a 46, Bob Gentil prevailed in the Grand Masters with a 49, Ming prevailed over herself in the Women's with a 65, and Dylan Menzies secured the Under 18 with a creditable 52. As tends to happen at Paradise, people playing in Queenstown promptly disappeared while the residents wound down and prepared for the evening. Marty did another yummy loaves and fishes routine with pasta, as people gravitated to the Garden of Eden. A complex issue about the round arose, which led to an interesting discussion. Clearly the wisdom of Solomon and the diplomatic skills of Henry Kissinger would be required to resolve this! The calm and mild evening gathered momentum, aided considerably by Martin Galley's superior tequila, open fire and fine drumming. Stories and jokes abounded, with peak levels of enjoyment being sustained for hours. Anyone who was there will remember it as a magical night. Exemplified perhaps by the mysterious, distant hooting and hollering, which turned out to be one of our party gleefully running around the field expressing his happiness! Forced myself to bed at 4am, to be rudely awoken by my alarm at 6am, accompanied by the sound of that rack turning another couple of notches. Uh oh! Scrambled around packing then bolted for Queenstown to set things up for the Classic. Everybody was helpful, as usual, and the event started taking form. Where was my intravenous caffeine drip? Eventually the players meeting began and off we went for the first round, in lovely weather. Even managed to score a creditable 52, which got me in the second seeded group for the afternoon, and a chance to do direct battle with Bob for the awesome, newly-created by Dan Kelly, Grand Masters trophy. Everything was ticking along just fine until I missed an easy putt with six holes to go, the rack turned one notch too far, and I hit the wall. Lucky it's only a game! With the help of many, scores were double-checked and ordered, prizes were collated and all appeared tickety boo. We then had a fun competition across the lily pond to see who won the NZSkydive jump, with Michael prevailing. Another grand selection of generous prizes was then handed out, with once again everyone getting a prize. Divisional winners in Queenstown were identical to those in Paradise, with the exception of Marty de Haas taking the Masters over Brett. In the midst of the pre-presentation chaos, I made an uncharacteristic mental arithmetic error and incorrectly presented the Paradise Grand Masters trophy and prize to Nigel Barnwell. Apologies once again to Bob. A fine evening of drinking and dining followed, with a few tired teddies in evidence. Thanks to the generosity of Marty, on the following morning I went on the winners’ flight with The Helicopter Line, which well made up for missing out last year. A final dinner that night with the survivors nicely rounded off another excellent weekend. A big thanks again to all those who helped out with the numerous tasks. Mental note for 2009, get rid of that rack by having less fun, not! James " Jaguar " Smithells Other Great Queenstown Disc Golf Events / Stories Queenstown 2007 Disc Golf Tournament
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