Award winner • Best Community Involvement Over 20,000 Circulation • NZCNA Awards 2014
JUDGES
Post
INSIDE THIS WEEK: PG 16
Spring
TS
COMMEN
2014
Fashion
& Beauty
Tuesday • SEPTEMBER 2 • 2014 PHONE: 09 235 78 35 FAX: 09 235 78 34
FRI
SAT
VOL 26 • NO.34
Waiuku soccer ‘in dreamland’
Ski season in Franklin?
SUN
marleen Ohms Sales Consultant
Get Top Results from a Top Performer!
Like something out of a Boy’s Own paper, the last seconds of the last match of the season saw Waiuku AFC become the first-ever Franklin team to reach the heights of the Northern Federation Soccer League’s Division One.
Mob 027 448 3528 A/h 09 235 0070
Osborne’s Osborne Realty Ltd Licenced REAA 2008
Politics hit the stage Candidates for Hunua hit the hustings in meetings around Franklin last week.
PAGE
3
Glittering night of art
Waiuku’s First Steps daycare centre was winter heaven for a day last week, as a tonne of snow was delivered for the youngsters to play in. It was an opportunity not to be missed for threeyear-old Katie Crispe!
25 years of the Franklin Arts Festival were showcased in Pukekohe on Friday night
PAGE
5
Stunning Daffodil Day It wasn’t just the weather that was great on Friday - so was the response from the public!
PAGE
11
L SCHOOLS SUPPORTING LOCA
WE WILL DONATE $1 for every $10
per transaction you spend with us to the School of your choice. Mon - Fri: 8am - 5:30pm • Sat & Sun: 9am-3pm• Closed Public Holidays.
6A Court St, Waiuku Ph: 09-2352769
Everything was on the line going into the last weekend of the season, with Waiuku and Papakura equal on 41 points, and both chasing the final promotion position. Papakura had the edge with a better goal difference, so Waiuku needed an away win against Warkworth, while hoping Papakura couldn’t beat Auckland side Fencibles. Knowing what was at stake, Waiuku started nervously and went one-nil down, under pressure and Waiuku’s ‘keeper Justin Baldwin was called on to make several good saves. At halftime, Waiuku were told to settle their nerves and leave nothing on the table. That is exactly what they did. A good through ball found Luke Chapman, who lobbed the ball over the keeper to equalise, before captain Cody Ralph scored the goal of the game to send the Waiuku supporters into raptures. Waiuku extended their lead soon after through Derek Sinclair, Ralph almost scored
again, before Chapman made it a double, and Waiuku had completed the first part of the equation with a 4-1 win. The players went into a huddle on the halfway line waiting for the final Papakura result. A mobile phone went off and the Waiuku players, supporters and coaches were in raptures after hearing Papakura had finished 1-1 with Fencibles. Coach Jim Evans said he was ‘in dreamland’. “It is quite unbelievable that a club the size of Waiuku has achieved this result. Make no mistake, this is an epic achievement and all the people involved with this result should be so proud of this effort. We have shown that passion and heart get you a long way if you really believe. It is a fantastic feeling to be receiving so many congratulations from other NRFL clubs and the football community as a whole. Every player should get player of the day today.”
World-first for Pukekohe company Deputy Prime Minister Bill English was in a tractor last week when he presided at the official handover ceremony of Auckland Airport’s world-first super-fast airport mower - a machine developed by Pukekohe business Fieldmaster. City Parks Services, the airport’s maintenance contractor, had found the wet boggy conditions at much of the Mangere site (which is close to sea level) often defeated conventional mowing equipment, especially with such a vast area, large parts of which are only accessible for brief periods due to planes taking off and landing. In response, Fieldmaster developed a machine which can cut over 60,000 square metres per hour and do so with the same ground pressure as a man (around 7 Psi). Grass control is a fundamental part of
Let’s have some FUN together!
airport habitat management worldwide. Cutting the grass with the right frequency, to the right height, plays a vital role in keeping birds away from the runway. Auckland Airport is delighted with the quality of cut and all-weather availability of the machine. “We are a 24 hour operation, with over 400 planes using our runway every day, meaning that large parts of the airfield are only accessible for brief periods of time. This means that finding the time to mow 200,000 square metres of grass is a feat unto itself and requires some very time-efficient equipment” stated Littlewood. The machine uses a ground-following system to control three carbon-fibre decks as it cuts at twenty kilometres an hour, three or four times faster than traditional equipment.
MONSTER
TOKEN DAY
GARY PYES
SALE!
Above: Andrew Bayly, National Candidate for Hunua, Paul Ayers of Fieldmaster, Hon Bill English, Adrian Littlewood, CEO Auckland Airport and Myles Cooper of Fieldmaster.
12 HOURS OF GREAT BARGAINS 8AM TO 8PM THIS THURSDAY SEPT 4
43 QUEEN ST, WAIUKU • PH 235 9711 • SAT: 9 - 4 • SUN: 10 - 3
Like us on facebook