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2010 Bondi Tens Tournament Report Woollahra Colleagues hosted another very successful Bondi Tens competition on 12/13th February. Twenty eight teams in the Open competition and three teams in the Over-35’s made for a very busy schedule. Some of the photos from the Tournament can be downloaded (by right clicking on the image and saving) for free, or purchased for $5 in full resolution. Proceeds from any sales will go to Bondi Tens charities. See - http://www.snaproom.com/bondi/ In time, all the photos will be uploaded to the site, categorised into "Team Photos", "Day One" and "Day Two". On Day 1, the seven pools of four teams contested a round robin. In Pool A, NSW Country Barbarians were quietly confident of repeating last year’s Cup win after they disposed of the NSW Fire Brigade, Team Ramrod and Wagga Waratahs to gain maximum points. In Pool B, newcomers Gregorians from Campbelltown claimed maximum points after beating Cairns Trinity Bulls, under the weather from a big night, South Sea Flyers from Fiji, and Mosman Whales. In Pool C, newcomers Scots OB’s were too strong for an ageing KB’s, newcomers Jet81 (sporting a strong RL influence from Newtown) and a Colleagues2 team pulled together at the last minute. It was a mixed bag of results in Pool D, with UTBNB from Cowra finally prevailing by beating Colleagues and Iggies OB’s but going down to Bali Legends. A UTBNB player collapsed during a game and was medivaced to hospital by helicopter; thanks to swift attention by the doctors, paramedics and referee in attendance he has recovered well. In Pool E, Tattersalls looked strong by beating Leatherhead Hammerheads (who get the prize for being most organised team), Twocans and British Lions. In Pool F Brothers from Other Mothers, last year’s beaten finalists, again looked strong by beating Toucans, Knox OB’s and struggling Silver Bullets. In Pool G, newcomers Creepy Pigs looked good, getting maximum points against Hilton Racing, Cougars and old faithfuls BOBS, Spanners team from QLD.  Day 2 was the knockout competition. Pool winners NSW Country Barbarians, Gregorians, Scots OB, UTBNB, Tattersalls, Brothers, and Creepy Pigs were joined by top- ranking Mosman Whales in the Bondi Tens Cup. In perhaps the match of the tournament, NSW Country met Tattersalls in the opening round. Tatts were 12-0 at half time and looking strong. However, Country fought back to 12-12 at the end of normal time and won with a Golden Point. UTBNB brought Creepy Pigs down to earth, Scots OB were too strong for Mosman and Brothers eliminated Gregorians in a close match. In the semi finals, NSW Country beat (7-5) a UTBN team who felt that they had been hard done by the ref, while Brothers brought Scots OB’s first visit to Bondi Tens to an end with a convincing 19-0 win. The final was a re-run of 2009 and again NSW Country Barbarians prevailed against Brothers, 12-0, to win the Bondi Tens Cup.
In the Plate, Hammerheads beat NSW Fire Brigade and Iggies beat Hilton Racing, who struggled for players throughout the tournament. Wagga Waratahs progressed further than last year with a win over Kokoda Barbarians, while Knox OB’s sent Cougars thro to the Challenge Plate. In the semis, Hammerheads perhaps surprisingly lost to Iggies and Knox OB’s beat Wagga by the single try. Knox OB beat Iggies OB’s in a close final to win the Bondi Tens Plate, for the second year in succession. In the Bowl, Team Ramrod from Quirindi were too strong for Toucans first team, but the second stream, Twocans, beat a depleted Colleagues team. Cairns Trinity Bulls started to look good against Colleagues2, but South Sea Flyers continued to disappoint, this time by turning up Fiji time for the match against Bali Legends. In the Bowl semis, Ramrod beat Twocans by a couple of tries and Bali Legends beat fellow travellers Cairns Trinity in a tightly fought game in the best spirit of the Tournament. In the final, Team Ramrod were too strong for Bali Legends and so took out the Bondi Tens Bowl. The Challenge competition was a popular initiative last year, whereby the losers in round one of the knockout played off in a mirror of the Cup, Plate and Bowl. In the Challenge Bowl final, Toucans were too good for South Sea Flyers; in the Challenge Plate, Cougars beat Hilton Racing, who had rounded up enough players to reach the final. The Bondi Tens Challenge Cup was comprehensively won by Tattersalls, who took out their disappointment at their first round elimination from the Cup with big scores over Creepy Pigs in the semi and Gregorians in the final. In the Biggest Loser competition, introduced to accommodate the 25th to 28th ranked teams from Day 1, BOBS had little trouble winning this dubious accolade by losing their 5th game of the tournament to Silver Bullets, who won their first, while British Lions recovered a bit of self respect by beating Jets81 to win their Best of the Losers stubby holders.
Everyone had a great time, the weather ranged from heat wave to showers, the timekeepers and referees kept the schedule to time, and then everyone let it all hang out at the spectacular Bondi Disco After-Party. A big “thank you” to David Vaughan and the NSW Referees, without whom none of this would have been possible. Thanks to our Sponsors, particularly Agrow who loyally supports us each year; Woollahra City Council who again presented the grounds in immaculate condition; and to Mark Green and his team at NSW Rugby were supportive in all aspects of administration. Again, in excess of $20,000 were collected for charity, which will go to Royal North Shore Burns Unit, Beyond Blue and others to be decided. We were without a Gold Sponsor this year, presumably because of the GFC. The Bondi Tens has now become such a successful brand on the Rugby calendar that it might be worth your while taking a Gold, or naming rights, position in the 2011 Bondi Tens. Think about it. See you there. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Download Newsletter 1 |
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