Footballers sport new kit and updated badge

Takapuna Football Club is introducing a new logo (pictured) and playing kit for all its teams.

Club members first proposed a logo redesign last year, to better match the current demographic of members.

Chairman Glyn Taylor said it made sense for the club to modernise its branding as over half of the current 650 members are youth players.

A club member, Sam Allen, owner of On Fire Designs, was asked to design a new logo which he further tweaked after feedback from club members.

Taylor said it was important to modernise the design while “keeping the history and existing characteristics of the old badge.”

“There are about 450 ways of drawing a dolphin and we did 500 of them,” said Taylor.

It is said that the old badge, adopted when the club was formed in 1964, was based in haste on the Takapuna City Council crest of the day, when the committee urgently had to supply a badge to register a team.

The club’s new kits will be worn by all of its

Westlake student makes Junior White Sox

Charlotte Graham, a Year 13 student at Westlake Girls High School, has been selected for the Junior White Sox team which will travel to the United States for three weeks in June.

The 17-year- old pitcher (left) comes from a softball-playing family, taking up the sport around age five, and first making North Harbour representative teams at 11. Now in the national under-18 team, she hopes to progress to the New Zealand senior squad. “But lots of work and training is to be done to reach that goal,” she says.

This season, in addition to Westlake’s top team, Charlotte played for three club sides: North Shore United’s under 18s, Bandits premiers, and Northcote premier reserves.

“I have always been a pitcher as I followed on from my brother when learning about the sport and decided it was the position for me,” says Charlotte, who is also a house prefect. She likes always being involved in play and the chance to control a game, NSRFC teams at senior and youth levels.

Taylor said the move is part of a new holistic approach, aimed at uniting the club under one vision.

The club previously had different variations of its yellow and blue strip being used randomly across different teams.

Taylor said the players need to look the same if they are going to have a “one-team, one-club” mentality.

“How can they think of the club as one identity if they look different?”

The new kits are set to cost the club $65,000. It has asked service clubs and other organisations to assist with the funding.

Another change is to its name, which was shortened from Takapuna Association Football Club, losing the word association.

The premier team is in training now, for its season which kicks off on 25 March.

• ROOF WASH

• GUTTER WASH

• SOFT HOUSE WASH

• PRE-PAINT WASH

• PATHS, DRIVEWAYS

• SPIDER TREATMENTS

• MOSS MOULD TREATMENTS

Family day promises insights into Lake Pupuke

A community event this Saturday promises to be a fun family day out and a chance to learn about one of Auckland’s oldest and most unique volcanoes.

Pupuke Bird Song (PBS) Projects’s Discover Pupukemoana event, at Killarney Park on 5 March, from 9:30 am to 3pm, promises a range of on- and off-water activities for the family to enjoy.

PBS environmental coordinator Tabitha Becroft said the day was about “learning about the fascinating nature of the lake and why we need to protect it”.

Event organisers have partnered with two groups, Aotearoa Lakes and Experiencing Marine Reserves, to offer tours of the lake as well as workshops and information stalls.

Experiencing Marine Reserves will operate guided kayak and snorkelling tours of the lake, with guides teaching participants about the lake’s plants, wildlife and history.

The tours offer the opportunity to get close to the eels, fish and plants in the lake.

Aotearoa Lakes will have educational stalls set up, displaying the results of research about what lives in the lake, showing how the ecosystem has changed over time, and identifying threats to its health.

The organisation has been doing research in the lake since 2017, measuring water quality, taking samples of sediment and mapping historical mussel beds.

Flax-weaving workshops and tours of the pumphouse will also be available.

The event is zero-waste, so attendees are encouraged to bring their own food and take their rubbish home with them, though Takapuna Primary School will have a small food stand on-site.

To secure a spot on a tour, book online at takapunatrust.org.nz/discover-pupukemoana/. All tours and activities are free.

Cyclone claims notable trees in Takapuna centre

Takapuna town centre has lost three feature trees due to Cyclone Gabrielle, one of which fell onto a parked vehicle

This was on the Takapuna town square development, where the tree which had been factored into the design of the area now under construction came down.

On Hurstmere Green a tree on the lawn required removal below the tiered steps from its concrete planter ring where it was a popular shaded spot for people having lunch. It suffered splitting during the stormy weather and despite the hopes of council arborists to retain it, the amount of trauma to its trunk on inspection meant it was deemed too damaged to retain.

Another tree would be selected and planted in its place in May, said Takapuna Beach Business Association chief executive Terence Harpur.

Outside the Hospice Shop on Huron St at the Lake Rd corner, a third large tree fell and has been cut up ready for removal.

Weather extends company’s run of misfortune

For the first time in its 20-year history, Shakespeare in the Park , staged at the PumpHouse, has made a loss.

The popular production was only able to proceed with 12 of its scheduled 26 shows due to bad weather and then flooding of the theatre when it was shifted inside from the Takapuna arts venue’s outdoor amphitheatre.

“It was not a great year for Shakespeare this year,” said a disappointed James Bell, director of one of the two plays presented by Shoreside Theatre.

The truncated season followed what has been a tough few years for the company, including thefts on top of Covid interruptions.

While final figures are yet to be tallied from ticket-refund processing, Bell said the season’s loss on the annual North Shore arts highlight was expected to be around $5000.

The interrupted 2023 season, which began on 21 January and was to have run through until mid-February, was meant to have helped Shoreside get back on its feet.

In 2020, like other arts groups, it began three years of grappling with Covid, while also dealing with the blow of having $50,000 stolen from its accounts by former volunteer treasurer Nicholas Greer.

Things were finally looking up, but in January sound and other electronic gear was stolen in a break-in at the theatre by four people shortly before the Shakespeare season of The Merry Wives of Windsor and Antony and Cleopatra began.

“We relied on Shakespeare to make a healthy profit and fund the rest of the year’s programme,” said Bell. Instead, the company was now hoping theatregoers would support its other two productions this year, one-act plays by up-and-comers and then its annual Agatha Christie outing in July.

The Christie play is yet to be announced, but Bell promises it will be a drawcard, and