<\/p>\n
\nA team saw through a log at a previous T\u016b\u0101tapere Sports Day.
\nPhoto: Dave Loudon \/ ODT\n<\/p>\n
A sports event that has woven itself into the fabric of a small Southland town is wrapping up after 116 years.<\/p>\n
T\u016b\u0101tapere Sports Day organiser and commentator Peter Templeton said the upcoming New Year’s Day outing will be the last.<\/p>\n
“It’s a sign of the times, but there’s nothing you can do about it. As I said, everything’s changed,” he said.<\/p>\n
“They’re more interested in just eating hot chips and walking around with their cell phones in their hands.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The small-town family event has shrunk over the years, in part due to losing elements such as clay bird shooting, cycling, Highland dancing and a pipe band.<\/p>\n
Another factor was Riverton Racing Club now holding races on the same day – something which was outside of the club’s control.<\/p>\n
Templeton, 78, had been involved in T\u016b\u0101tapere Sports Day for many moons, including as its commentator for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n
It was mostly run by older people as younger ones were not interested in “stepping up and looking after it”, he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nPeter Templeton is one of the event’s organisers.
\nPhoto: Matthew Rosenberg \/ LDR\n<\/p>\n
A recent meeting to explain what was happening and see if people could step up only attracted two people.<\/p>\n
As for the events on the day, they were now down to just wood chopping and athletics.<\/p>\n
“People aren’t going to come all the way out from Invercargill to watch something and there’s just two things happening, you know.”<\/p>\n
It wasn’t all bad news, however. Templeton thought some cyclists might turn up for the finale, and said the bushcraft aspect would continue at the back of the Waiau Town & Country Club in T\u016b\u0101tapere.<\/p>\n
Southland mayor Rob Scott said T\u016b\u0101tapere Sports Day had been going for many years and was well supported and enjoyed by the community.<\/p>\n
More people needed to put their hand up and help with running if they wanted to see such things continue, he said.<\/p>\n
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A team saw through a log at a previous T\u016b\u0101tapere Sports Day. Photo: Dave Loudon \/ ODT A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-179712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}