Even the organisers of yesterday’s 50th anniversary Green Island Junior Football Club seven-a-side tournament agreed it was a very frosty day for the tournament.
They went to a lot of trouble to spray the name of the event in white paint on the field in front of the Sunnyvale clubrooms, only to find it was impossible to see amid the frosty ground.
Despite the bone-chilling climate, it was spectacularly sunny, and about 800 children from 129 teams across Dunedin took to the fields.
Green Island Junior Football Club tournament manager James Crawford said it was ‘‘a bit tough getting started’’, but everyone seemed to warm up pretty quickly.
‘‘It's not the Fifa World Cup or anything like that.
‘‘It's just for the kids to have a great day out, play some football with their mates and just enjoy it, and hopefully come back next year as well.
‘‘The parents, they seem to enjoy it as well. They were happy once they got the coffee in.
‘‘Everyone's got a smile on their face. It’s a great family day out.’’
He said reaching their 50th anniversary was ‘‘a pretty impressive milestone’’ and he was pleased the organisation had been able to keep the event running through some difficult times over the decades.
‘‘It's kind of a legacy for the club.’’
Junior club life member and one of the founding members of the tournament, Ian Hand, said the event was established as a result of ‘‘a few talks over a beer at the pub’’.
‘‘We wanted to do something in Dunedin, on an ordinary Saturday, to create a day for the children, to bring all the clubs together, and make it a family event.’’
Mr Hand said he had attended almost every junior tournament over the past 50 years, bar a handful.
He said yesterday’s was one of the best, because it was the tournament’s 50th anniversary and he had spent much of the day reminiscing about the early days of running the event.
They had the Green Island Pipe Band do a march around the field with the players in tow for the first few events, he said.
‘‘We did the same thing this morning. We had two flares going — green and gold ones — and three pipers came and walked around with a banner.
‘‘The atmosphere was still there, like the first time. The effect was good.’’
