Hawke’s Bay Triples

Hawke's Bay Triples was a three-player paintball tournament held in New Zealand's Hawke's Bay region. Contemporary reports document competition by 1999, while later forum records and photographs document editions in 2009 and 2010.[1][9][10]

History

The Mercenaries Star tournament calendar described the Triples as the successor to Fantasyland, a recreational paintball event whose attendance had declined.[2]

1999

Eight teams entered the 1999 tournament. Games lasted six minutes, with an allowance of 100 paintballs per player. Amon Johnson led a training session before Sunday's competition.[1]

House Steiner Blue led the preliminary round, while House Steiner Red and The Boys From The Black Stuff were tied for second. Red defeated Black Stuff in a deciding semi-final, then beat Blue by one elimination across a two-game final in which the teams played from both ends.[1]

1999 final placings
Place	Team
1	House Steiner Red
2	House Steiner Blue
3	The Boys From The Black Stuff

The other entrants were The Bay Boys, Vipers, Kapiti Assassins, Commando Paintball Club and Warp Speed. Both House Steiner squads came from Wellington; the remaining teams represented Hawke's Bay, New Plymouth, Kāpiti, Taupō and Napier.[1]

Rick Levick organised the tournament. The referees were Wayne Hilliam, Damon Goldsworthy, Richard Bell and Graham Nattress.[1]

2000

The February 2000 tournament was advertised by Paintball Hawke's Bay and the Hawke's Bay Paintball Club at Pines Paintball Field, State Highway 50, Roys Hill, near Hastings. Les Hall was the event contact.[3]

The announcement specified three-player open competition, a 100-round paint allowance and entry of NZ$30 per team. Squads could register up to five players.[3]

Cannon Fodder, which subsequently adopted the Wellington Phoenix name, entered two squads. Its contemporary news report and retrospective history give conflicting placings for those entries.[4][5]

2001

The 2001 edition was advertised for 3–4 February at Pines Paintball Field. Paintball Hawke's Bay again presented the tournament, with Les Hall as the contact. The announced format was three-player centre-flag competition under Australian Paintball Players League rules, with 100 rounds per player per end.[6]

Fifteen teams competed, each playing fourteen preliminary games across two fields. A Wellington Phoenix report published on 5 February recorded House Steiner as the winner, Phoenix Red second and Phoenix Grey third. Phoenix Orange finished eighth.[4]

Reported 2001 results
Place	Team
1	House Steiner
2	Phoenix Red
3	Phoenix Grey
8	Phoenix Orange

Named squads

The event report identifies the following squads. Phoenix players' expanded names are supported by the team's contemporary roster.[4][7]

Squad	Players
House Steiner	Willy Aull (captain), Marty Dannefaerd, Wayne Hilliam, Evan Lewis
Phoenix Red	Peter Hamilton (RePete), Jeremy Hooper (Goat), Danny Connery
Phoenix Grey	Ryan Pike (Rabbit), Mark Waddell (Ogre), Mark Candy (Candyman)
Phoenix Orange	Adon Upjohn, Glen Webber, Chris, Shane [R]

These are event squads; the playing format remained three-a-side. The report does not give surnames for Orange's Chris or Shane [R].[4]

Preliminary scores

The Valhalla national rankings recorded the following normalised opening-round scores. These figures are preliminary scores, rather than the final tournament classification.[8]

Team	Normalised score
House Steiner	84.3
Phoenix Red	75.0
Phoenix Grey	64.9
Tag n' Release GPS	64.3
Damage	62.9
Total Kaos	57.1
Crossfire GBH	52.1
Phoenix Orange	50.0
DamNatives Red	46.4
DaBayBoyz	46.4
Crossfire BG	43.0
Warp Speed	37.1
Brew Ha	31.4
DamNatives Black	29.4
Nutters	26.8

2002

The 2–3 February 2002 tournament took place at Stoney Creek Ranch, Hastings, organised by Les Hall. Seventeen teams competed in three-player centre-flag games, with 100 paintballs allowed per player per game.[11]

Three playing fields were laid out on a rugby ground: two inflatable fields and a plywood field supplied by Tag n' Release. Accommodation and meals formed part of the event arrangements.[11]

GPS led the preliminary round and defeated RUSH 100–10 in the final. These were the only teams to contest the final.[11]

2002 final
Place	Team	Final score
1	GPS	100
2	RUSH	10

The event report published the following preliminary scores. Their order does not represent a separate full final-round classification.[11]

2002 preliminary round
Position	Team	Points
1	GPS	1,530
2	RUSH	1,230
3	Flict	1,220
4	DNA	1,070
5	Phoenix Red	1,010
6	Smash	1,000
7	Bronco's	920
8	Shock (W)	902
9	Fusion	900
10	Phoenix Grey	848
11	Menace	770
12	Your mama	696
13	Shock (P)	670
14	Brewha	590
15	Shock Tactics	480
16	Kapiti (jnr)	394
17	Comic Relief	−34

Comic Relief received the report's Most Stand-Out Team award.[11]

2009

The tournament was held on 7–8 February 2009 at 75/77 Ngatarawa Road, Bridge Pa, Hastings. An announcement posted to the NZ Paintball Message Boards on 24 January specified three-player round-robin competition, five-minute games, one additional pod per player per game and peer refereeing.[9]

Entry cost NZ$50 per player, with paint advertised at NZ$80 per case and gas-cylinder hire at NZ$20 per tank. Camping, meals and refreshments were included in the advertised arrangements.[9]

Post-event messages on 10 February confirmed that the tournament had taken place. Les Hall discussed publishing photographs on 22 February, and a Flickr collection was linked the following day.[9]

2010

Photographer L. M. Bennett documented the 2010 edition in a Flickr album titled Hawkes Bay Triples 2010. The collection contains 41 photographs, including the scoreboard and prizegiving.[10]

The scoreboard photograph is dated 7 February 2010 and was uploaded on 15 February. It contains sixteen team entries; fourteen names are legible: GPS, DEA, Bush, Arachnids, Adrenalin, Happymeal A, Happymeal B, Aces, Skullz, Mole, Assassinz, Hell Boys, Buccaneers and Pirates. The photograph does not provide sufficiently legible totals to reproduce the final standings.[10]

References