House Steiner (New Zealand Paintball Team)

House Steiner was a New Zealand tournament paintball team associated with Palmerston North and Wellington. Willy Aull's account describes the House Steiner tournament team being assembled for a Wellington ten-player event in 1990. Later records document fourth place at the 1998 New Zealand Paintball Nationals, first and second at the 1999 Hawke's Bay Triples, victory at the 2001 Hawke's Bay Triples and a reported Wellington Cup victory in 2001.[1][2][4][6][7]

The team fielded separate House Steiner Red, House Steiner Blue and House Steiner Black entries. These were squads of House Steiner rather than unrelated teams.

History

Early history

In an undated profile preserved in February 2002, Willy Aull recalled an earlier House Steiner group associated with Massey students in Palmerston North and named Marcel Ensing in connection with it. Aull tentatively placed that earlier group in 1984, but his wording was uncertain and does not establish a verified founding date.[1]

Aull separately described the assembly of the House Steiner tournament team in 1990. According to his account, John Sheldon and Lyall Norton of Thunderball Adventure Games were organising a ten-player South Pacific Open in Wellington. Aull, his brothers Doug and David Aull, and Marcel Ensing intended to enter, and Aull recruited six additional Thunderball players.[1]

The Aull brothers had previously used the name Lords of Discipline Palmerston North. Aull recalled that they decided not to use that name for the Wellington entry and instead asked Ensing for permission to use House Steiner.[1] The account establishes shared players and a naming decision, but does not provide enough information to treat Lords of Discipline as a former official name of House Steiner or to establish it as the same organisation.

A retrospective photograph published by the House Steiner Facebook profile identifies William Aull, David Aull and Nick Gee at a 1991 T-Ball tournament representing Palmerston North and Wellington. The image was uploaded in 2011, so its caption is retrospective evidence rather than a contemporary event record.[13]

Later photographic records

Photographs published by the House Steiner profile identify the team at the T-Ball South Pacific Open at Thunderball Adventure Games in Manor Park, Lower Hutt, tentatively dated in their captions to 1996.[14]

Other historical photographs identify House Steiner at an Actions Paintball tournament near Auckland and at a seven-player tournament in Whanganui. Comments identify the Actions location as Helensville or Parakai, but do not establish the tournament year. William Aull later recalled a first-place finish at the Whanganui event, although no date or contemporary result table has been recovered.[15][16]

These event locations do not establish Whanganui or Auckland as team bases.

1998–1999

House Steiner finished fourth with 940 points at the 1998 New Zealand Paintball Nationals, held at Actions Paintball in Te Atatū on 24–25 October.[2]

At the 1999 Hawke's Bay Triples, House Steiner entered House Steiner Red and House Steiner Blue. Blue led the preliminary competition. Red and The Boys From The Black Stuff then tied for second, with Red advancing through a deciding semi-final.[4]

House Steiner Red defeated House Steiner Blue in the two-game final by one elimination. Red therefore finished first and Blue second. Both entries were described in the contemporary report as Wellington teams. The source does not supply numerical final scores or complete named rosters.[4]

At the 1999 New Zealand Nationals, held at Actions Paintball in Helensville on 23–24 October, House Steiner finished ninth with 505 points.[3]

2000

A contemporary Phoenix report identifies House Steiner among the finalists at the South Pacific Championships, held at Thunderball Adventure Games in Wellington on 22–23 April 2000. The report does not establish House Steiner's exact placing.[6]

House Steiner subsequently provided refereeing at the 2000 Wellington Cup, which Phoenix won.[6]

The 2000 Valhalla National Rankings recorded House Steiner Red and House Steiner Black separately. Red ranked sixth with 80.5 ranking points, while Black ranked fifteenth with 65.[10][12]

2001

House Steiner won the Hawke's Bay Triples in February 2001. Phoenix's contemporary report names a four-player squad comprising captain Willy Aull, Marty Dannefaerd, Wayne Hilliam and Evan Lewis.[6]

The same report describes the result as House Steiner's third consecutive victory at the event. This is retained as a contemporary team-report claim; it is not used to assign an unverified result or year beyond the editions supported by recovered records.[6]

A forum report posted on 13 August 2001 states that Steiner won the Wellington Cup. It describes Steiner, Saints and Tag n' Release as the leading three teams, separated by fewer than 30 points. The report does not explicitly assign second and third places or supply the teams' exact totals.[7]

Squad names

Contemporary results and rankings document the following House Steiner entries:

• House Steiner, used when a single team entry was recorded.
• House Steiner Red, documented at the 1999 Hawke's Bay Triples and in the 2000 Valhalla rankings.
• House Steiner Blue, documented at the 1999 Hawke's Bay Triples.
• House Steiner Black, documented in the 2000 Valhalla rankings.

The colour suffixes distinguish squads entered by the same organisation. They should be retained in event results where more than one House Steiner squad competed.

Players and team personnel

The following records identify specific House Steiner involvement. They do not constitute a complete roster for any one season.

Person	Documented involvement	Source context
Willy Aull	Recalled assembling the 1990 tournament team; captain of the February 2001 Hawke's Bay Triples squad	Player profile and Phoenix tournament report.[1][6]
Doug Aull	Named among the players intending to enter the 1990 South Pacific Open	Willy Aull's account.[1]
David Aull	Named among the players intending to enter the 1990 South Pacific Open; retrospectively identified at the 1991 T-Ball tournament	Player profile and historical photograph.[1][13]
Marcel Ensing	Associated with the earlier House Steiner name and the 1990 tournament entry	Willy Aull's account.[1]
Nick Gee	Retrospectively identified at the 1991 T-Ball tournament	Historical photograph.[13]
Marty Dannefaerd	Member of the winning February 2001 Hawke's Bay Triples squad	Phoenix tournament report.[6]
Wayne Hilliam	Member of the winning February 2001 Hawke's Bay Triples squad	Phoenix tournament report.[6]
Evan Lewis	Member of the winning February 2001 Hawke's Bay Triples squad	Phoenix tournament report.[6]

Hilliam also appears on Phoenix's broader website roster, while Lewis is listed among people who had played with Phoenix. These overlapping records do not establish permanent transfers or exclusive membership.[8]

Historical photographs published by the House Steiner profile contain further player tags. Because the images span several unidentified or retrospectively identified events, those tags should not be combined into a single tournament roster.[13][15][16][17]

Sponsorship

Historical photographs show a House Steiner banner bearing the wording “Sponsored by Bullseye Paintballs”. A team photograph uploaded in 2011 also shows several people wearing matching Bullseye Paintballs shirts.[17][18]

The photographs document the sponsorship association but do not establish its starting date or duration.

Recorded tournament results

Year	Competition	Entry	Recorded result
1998	New Zealand Paintball Nationals	House Steiner	4th; 940 points.[2]
1999	Hawke's Bay Triples	House Steiner Red	1st.[4]
1999	Hawke's Bay Triples	House Steiner Blue	2nd.[4]
1999	New Zealand Paintball Nationals	House Steiner	9th; 505 points.[3]
2000	South Pacific Championships	House Steiner	Finalist; exact placing not established.[6]
2001	Hawke's Bay Triples	House Steiner	1st.[6]
2001	Wellington Cup	House Steiner	Reported winner.[7]

The undated Whanganui victory recalled in a later photograph comment is not assigned a year or added to the table.[16]

National rankings

Season	Entry	Ranking category	Position	Ranking score
1998	House Steiner	Combined	6th	51
1999	House Steiner	Combined	11th	57
2000	House Steiner Red	Combined	6th	80.5
2000	House Steiner Black	Combined	15th	65
2001	House Steiner	Five-player	3rd	93.4
2001	House Steiner	Three-player	6th	84.3

Sources: Valhalla National Rankings.[5][9][10][11]

These are calculated national rankings rather than placings at individual tournaments. The 2001 tables used accumulated round scores, while the earlier rankings used averaged calculated scores.[11][12]

See also

• Paintball in New Zealand
• New Zealand Paintball Nationals
• Wellington Phoenix (paintball team)
• Valhalla National Rankings

References

1. Willy Aull, Who's Who of New Zealand Paintball, undated profile. Archived 22 February 2002.
2. Rob Maddox, The 1998 Two Day NZ Nationals Tournament, Paintball.co.nz. Archived 17 August 2002.
3. Rob Maddox, The 1999 Two Day NZ Nationals Tournament, Paintball.co.nz. Archived 17 August 2002.
4. Rick Levick, 1999 Hawkes Bay Triples, Paintball.co.nz. Archived 6 June 2002.
5. Mercenaries Star, Valhalla Hall of Heros: 1998.
6. Phoenix, contemporary team news and tournament reports, 1999–2001. Archived 20 October 2001.
7. Wellington Cup, NZ Paintball forum discussion, including a report posted through Big P's account on 13 August 2001.
8. Phoenix, undated roster and list of people who had played with the team. Archived 6 February 2002.
9. Mercenaries Star, Valhalla Hall of Heros: 1999.
10. Mercenaries Star, Valhalla Hall of Heros: 2000.
11. Mercenaries Star, Valhalla Hall of Heros: 2001. Standings dated October 2001.
12. Mercenaries Star, Valhalla National Team Rankings methodology.
13. House Steiner, photograph captioned “House Steiner (Palmy/Wellington) T-Ball Tourney 1991”. Uploaded 23 August 201