Saints (New Zealand paintball team)

Saints, also known as Team Saints, was a New Zealand tournament paintball organisation active during the 1990s and 2000s. It fielded squads including Saints Gold, Saints Black and Saints Grey. Saints Gold led the independent Valhalla National Rankings in 1998, 1999 and 2000, and headed the published seven-player standings dated October 2001.[1][2][3][4]

Contemporary player profiles identify Rik Goldsworthy as captain and Amon Johnson, David Caton, Ian MacDonald, Jo Pitts and Keith Docherty as members.[15][16][17][18][19][20]

History

1991 tournament recollection

In his contemporary New Zealand Paintball profile, preserved in February 1998, Saints captain Rik Goldsworthy named the 1991 Australasian South Pacific ten-player Open when asked about his greatest paintball achievement. His brief response does not establish a placing or identify the team with which he competed.[15]

1995 season

Saints won the 1995 New Zealand South Pacific Championships, held in Wellington over the Easter weekend.[5]

Later that year, the team competed in the Australian South Pacific Paintball Championships at Adventure Quest Games near Windsor, New South Wales. Seven ten-player teams contested the R. P. Scherer-sponsored event. Saints did not advance to the finals.[6][21]

On 21–22 October 1995, Saints won a seven-player tournament at Tactics, Bethells Beach, Auckland. The team won nine of its ten games and scored 910 points. The contemporary report identified Rik Goldsworthy, recorded as Rick, as captain.[7]

1996 Australian Masters

Saints competed at the 1996 Australian Masters at Skirmish Adventures in Helensburgh, New South Wales. The APPL-sanctioned event attracted 14 teams from Australia, New Zealand and the United States and used professional and amateur divisions.[22]

The contemporary report identifies Saints as a professional team but does not establish their final placing.[22]

1997–2000

Saints Black placed second in the 1997 Valhalla rankings with 79 points.[8]

Jo Pitts’s contemporary player profile records a Saints trip to Australia in November 1997, including games against Thunderpigs and Black Reign’s second team.[19]

Saints Gold led the Valhalla rankings in 1998 with 92.5 points, followed by further first-place rankings in 1999 and 2000, both with 91 points. Saints Black and the separately listed Grey squad also appeared in the rankings during this period.[1][2][3]

2001 season

In the Valhalla standings dated October 2001, Saints Gold ranked first in seven-player competition with 400.5 cumulative points. Its recorded results came from the Northland Open, RotoVegas and New Zealand Paintball Nationals.[4]

Saints Gold also ranked second in five-player competition with 211 points and fourth in three-player competition with 152.5 points.[4]

These were independent rankings compiled from tournament results, rather than placings at a single championship.[4][9]

2004 Huntington Beach

Saints competed at the opening round of the 2004 National Professional Paintball League Super 7 Series at Huntington Beach, California, on 19–21 March.[10]

In an April 2004 interview with Rob Maddox for Paintball.co.nz, captain Rik Goldsworthy reported that Saints won three of its eight games.[11]

A photographic collection published through Martin Dannefaerd’s Flickr account documents Saints at the event.[12]

Players and leadership

Contemporary profiles

The New Zealand Paintball website published profiles identifying the following Saints members. The profiles survive in Internet Archive captures from February 1998; the capture dates do not establish when each player joined the team.[15][16][17][18][19][20]

Player	Documented team involvement	Source
Rik Goldsworthy	Identified as Team Saints captain. His profile spells his surname “Goldworthy”.	[15]
Amon Johnson	Identified as a Team Saints member.	[16]
David Caton	Described as a longstanding Saints member and manager of the Auckland Commando One Paintball field.	[17]
Ian MacDonald	Described as a longstanding Saints member. His profile records his participation in and support for stock-class paintball.	[18]
Jo Pitts	Identified as a Saints member who previously played for Kamo Karzi and NSS. His playing position is described as “Extreme Point”.	[19]
Keith Docherty	Identified as a Saints member and paintball equipment supplier. Previously played for Dragons Claw and The Goodies.	[20]

Goldsworthy’s captaincy is also documented in the October 1995 Auckland tournament report and the April 2004 Huntington Beach interview.[7][11]

Photographic identifications

An undated photograph captioned Saints, Auckland, published by the House Steiner Facebook profile, contains tags identifying:[13]

Amon Johnson
Kane Anderson
Paul Adams

A separate undated photograph captioned Saints Grey, Auckland (Lynx -Wellington) contains tags identifying:[14]

Andrew Walbran
Vanessa Page
Wayne “Link” Hilliam

Hilliam was known as “Link”; Lynx Custom was his airsmithing business.

The photographs were uploaded on 18 August 2011, but their original dates have not been established. The tags identify people in the photographs and do not establish complete season rosters.[13][14]

Recorded rankings

Season	Published entry	Format	Position	Ranking score
1997	Saints Black	Combined	2nd	79
1997	Grey	Combined	5th	71
1998	Saints Gold	Combined	1st	92.5
1998	Grey	Combined	2nd	78
1998	Saints Black	Combined	5th	64
1999	Saints Gold	Combined	1st	91
1999	Grey	Combined	4th	77
2000	Saints Gold	Combined	1st	91
2000	Grey	Combined	Equal 2nd	82.5
2000	Saints Black	Combined	23rd	50
2001	Saints Gold	Seven-player	1st	400.5
2001	Saints Gold	Five-player	2nd	211
2001	Saints Gold	Three-player	4th	152.5

Sources: Mercenaries Star’s Valhalla tables.[1][2][3][4][8]

The 2001 tables are dated October 2001. Their cumulative scores are not directly comparable with the averaged scores used in earlier seasons.[4][9]

References

Valhalla Hall of Heros: 1998. Mercenaries Star.
Valhalla Hall of Heros: 1999. Mercenaries Star.
Valhalla Hall of Heros: 2000. Mercenaries Star.
Valhalla Hall of Heros: 2001. Mercenaries Star. Standings dated October 2001.
Australian Paintballer, June–July 1995, “Sydney HEAT Make Friends in High Places”.
Australian Paintballer, December 1995–February 1996, “South Pacific Extravaganza”.
Australian Paintballer, December 1995–February 1996, report on the Auckland seven-player tournament at Tactics, Bethells Beach.
Valhalla Hall of Heros: 1997. Mercenaries Star.
Valhalla National Team Rankings: methodology. Mercenaries Star.
WARPIG, “NPPL Huntington Beach 2004”, contemporary tournament coverage.
Rob Maddox, “Interview: Rik Goldsworthy”, Paintball.co.nz, April 2004.
Huntington Beach 2004. Martin Dannefaerd, Flickr photographic collection.
House Steiner — “Saints, Auckland” photograph. Facebook, uploaded 18 August 2011; original photograph undated. Caption and identification tags preserved in the supplied screenshot.
House Steiner — “Saints Grey, Auckland (Lynx -Wellington)” photograph. Facebook, uploaded 18 August 2011; original photograph undated. Caption and identification tags preserved in the supplied screenshot.
Who’s Who: Rik Goldworthy. New Zealand Paintball, archived February 1998.
Who’s Who: Amon Johnson. New Zealand Paintball, archived February 1998.
Who’s Who: David Caton. New Zealand Paintball, archived February 1998.
Who’s Who: Ian MacDonald. New Zealand Paintball, archived February 1998.
Who’s Who: Jo Pitts. New Zealand Paintball, archived February 1998.
Who’s Who: Keith Docherty. New Zealand Paintball, archived February 1998.
South Pacific’s. Gavin Costello, War Paint, issue 1, January 1996.
Australian Masters. Kez Svanberg, War Paint, issue 4, November 1996.

External links

Saints at Huntington Beach 2004 — photographs