Karen Martelletti on the IPs in Dunedin

The IPs have just finished and I just want to say thank you to the committee for the efforts in securing funding and paying for the accommodation.

The motel was superb. It was the best we have stayed in to date and an easy walk to the club. It is so nice to have everyone in the same venue and no doubt at all this helps the Region bond as a larger team. It was evident to me that we were the best organised Region in this regard. Some Regions had players scattered all over the place, having had to make their own arrangements and the drivers were frustrated, as they did not know in advance where they were taking them to.

The flights down were rather bumpy to say the least and some (including ours) had to make two or three attempts to land in Dunedin. We were worried we maybe diverted. I guess this makes good case for arriving the day before, as some Wellington players coming down Saturday morning, were delayed, resulting in the event starting late.

The Otago club were amazing and well organised. They had an abundance of food all three days and the drivers and arrangements to and from the airport were awesome.

The teams had their good and bad matches. The Intermediates were the best and the Women were looking good for a while. Our Seniors team had some disappointing matches, but we were always close, even when way down the list. It was frustrating that the round results did not give any VPs for the bye round, so after each match, we had to try and calculate who had a bye and who hadn't and work out who really was doing well. Made us look good overnight on Saturday, as it showed us in the lead, but we were the only team to not have had their bye. At least we had 7 wins, but they were not big enough.

So thank you again for the opportunity to represent the Region and being so well cared for. Just a shame we could not reward the Region with better results.

ciao
Karen