The Akarana Softball Team is one of the strongest in Auckland. (Photo: Robin Wood) THE AUCKLAND MAORI IN SPORT by JOCK TAUA The outstanding fact about the Maori people in sport is their preference for such body contact sports as football, basketball, boxing and wrestling. The more static type of game such as cricket does not seem to appeal to the instinct to come to grips, as it were, with your foe. This, I think, is an inherent trait with a warrior like people who developed special skills in hand to hand or close combat. Quickness of the eye, speed of foot, good balance and ability to seize an opportunity were essential to his survival. These highly developed skills were naturally handed down or taught to successive generations. This trait the Maori has sustained in a measure to this day and is of great value in his modern activities. These are few Maori Sporting Clubs existing in Auckland, there being a tendency to assimilation with the European teams. Purely Maori competitions do not exist on a properly organised competitive basis. I think the reason could be that there are such a variety of sports that it is easy for a Maori in Auckland to pick his sport. There is an embryo committee functioning at the Maori Community Centre that is trying to encourage affiliation to a Maori Sporting Group but so far success has been negligible.

LEAGUE FOOTBALL The League code is richly endowed with lustrous names of Maoridom. Names like George Nepia, Jim Rukutai, Peter Ririnui, those famous brothers Rangi and Tommy Chase, Steve Watene and Ivan Gregory scintillate among a galaxy of stars. Most of these players were converts from the Rugby Union where they had already made their reputations. Nepia had played League in England and on his return to New Zealand played for the Manukau Club in Auckland. Manukau is one of the greatest club teams to have ever played on Carlaw Park and in its heydey boasted a team in which internationals rubbed shoulders with provincial stars. Manukau consisted entirely of players of Maori descent and proved a great draw card. The senior team achieved one of