Community comes together for cup challenge

Allan Paterson, of Gimmerburn, tackles the obstacle course during the Maniototo Community Cup...
Allan Paterson, of Gimmerburn, tackles the obstacle course during the Maniototo Community Cup event held at Oturehua yesterday. Photos by Gregor Richardson.
''Goop on a rag on a stick and toss it at a pot lid.''

That is not gobbledegook.

It is ''slime curling'', as described by Denise Baddock, announcing at the Maniototo Community Cup in Oturehua yesterday. Finding the location of the cup event was easy. Aside from Oturehua being relatively small, the number of utes and trucks parked outside the venue was a giveaway.

• Slideshow: Community Cup Top Town 

This year's community cup was definitely a rural affair, with teams from seven communities in the area contesting events like the digger track challenge, standing inside a loop of carpet and moving it like a digger track, duck-shooting-themed darts and an obstacle course featuring hay bales.

Slime curling, a sans-ice take on the game, involved flicking rags dipped in ''goop'' at the middle of a target, played with the same rules as its winter version.

Mrs Baddock described the competition as ''something fun that involves the old, the young, and the indifferent''.

About 150 people turned up for the family-friendly event in calm, hot weather, where teams of eight, compris ing four men, and four women, including one person aged over 60 and one under 16, battled it out.

For the first time, the Kyeburn-Danseys Pass team took victory, with Wedderburn and Waipiata-Kokonga second equal.

Oturehua woman Ro McDiarmid, who helped host the event, said it embodied community spirit and celebrated the Maniototo.

''It's absolutely a success, people are enjoying their day with their families. That's what it's all about - bringing people together who don't often see each other. It's a way of catching up with people you don't get to see in your normal circles.''

Different communities take turns to host the cup, now in its fourth year.

Next year it is Patearoa's turn.

-leith.huffadine@odt.co.nz

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