The Wānaka Touch season wound up on Friday (February 25) with a series of finals played at the Upper Clutha Rugby Club.

This was a record season for touch in Wānaka with 40 teams participating across all grades, up from 32 last year and 24 in 2019.

“This was the first season we have had women’s and men’s only divisions and they were both hugely successful,” organiser Kirsten Wyatt said.

“This is definitely something we will be doing again next season.”

Kirsten said there were five women only teams which introduced a number of new players to the sport.

“We did weekly training in the lead up to the season,” she said.

“Most of these women had never played touch before so have now been introduced to a new sport and are keen to play again next season.”

A highlight of the finals night was the attendance of two of New Zealand’s leading Touch referees. John Dustow and Richie Heap are ranked number one and number three respectively in the country.

“While having John and Richie there for the finals was fantastic we can’t take anything away from the refs who turned up every week to ref over the 15 week season,” Kirsten said.

Kirsten noted that Alan Dunne (a.k.a Irish) refereed 51 games which she described as an “outstanding effort”.

Kirsten said she is looking forward to next season and growing the women’s division to eight teams.

Results:

Men’s grade

Velvet Thunder 8 Gringos 7

Mixed A grade

Magic Hands 8 Do Bro’s 7

Mixed B grade

Neither Fast nor Furious 7 The Baa Baa’s 6

Mixed C grade

No Woman No Try 7 Tap & Gap 6

Mixed D grade

Touching Cloth 8 It’s Not Going To Touch Itself 2

Overall Female Player: Grace Curruthers

Overall Male Player: Reece Te Pairi

Overall Referee: Tarn Ockwell

PHOTO: Wānaka App