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Sam Baxter and Ellis Pike from the BFH (Best Friends Hockey) celebrate Pike s goal against College Old Boys during the final of the Men s Five-a-Side Hockey tournament in Stratford on Sunday.
Hockey and country music were on the bill for Taranaki this weekend - but in separate events. The Taranaki Lighting 5’s Hockey Tournament was held in Stratford over the weekend, drawing 19 teams from all over the North Island. The event is modelled off the Hockey Fast 5’s concept seen at the Nanjing Youth Olympics in 2014. Teams consisting of four field players and one goalie play games over a half field.
Taranaki Chamber of Commerce chief executive Arun Chaudhari said he was delighted with the decision, particularly with multiple events coming up – including the Americarna festival of classic American cars, the Witt student graduation, which was expecting 1500 people. It was also good news for businesses – one hotelier had been fully booked for this week “and it dropped to 25 per cent on Sunday”, Chaudhari said. “They talked about losing about $20,000 for the week - just washed away.” But he warned against being complacent. “We’ve got to keep hammering: scan the QR code and have your Bluetooth on. “It s not going away for a long time.”
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Americarna organiser John Rae says the event will be held in March if it can t go ahead next week as planned. (file photo)
Organisers of two Taranaki festivals have their fingers crossed the government will on Wednesday announce a return to Covid-19 alert level 1, allowing their events to go ahead as planned. Taranaki’s celebration of American muscle cars, Americarna 2021, is scheduled to start on Wednesday, February 24, and run through to Saturday, February 27, and has attracted more than 750 entrants from around the country.
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Americarna organisers have their fingers crossed the country will be back at alert level 1 so the event can go ahead next week. (file photo)