Posted by For reasons that I am not 100% clear about the already poor history of Australian volleyball, especially of the National Teams prior to the inauguration of the AIS program, has a massive hole in 1988. There are some matches that I know existed but were never recorded, such as the 1988 Bicentennial Cup, but I recently learned of an event that I didn’t even know about, the 1988 Trans Tasman Trophy. As far as I can put together, a Hungarian team was due to tour Australia but cancelled at the last minute. The AVF contacted New Zealand to fill the void. The 10 day time period was too short to put together their full National Team, but the Pioneer Club of Christchurch offered to fill the void, with the addition of two other players. Four matches were played in Tasmania and Victoria. New Zealand won the second match of the tour in Rosebery. According to the New Zealand press report linked below it was the first New Zealand victory over Australia for fifteen years. According to official (admittedly incomplete) records, it was actually New Zealand’s first every victory over Australia in an international match.
Below is all the information I have cobbled together including some comments from participants. Also a couple of contemporary news clips and photos. Any help to fill in the gaps, such as scores and dates is greatly appreciated. Thanks to Russell Borgeaud, Niels Kingma, Tony Barnett and especially Quinton Smith for the information that follows and for telling me about the tour in the first place.
Australian Roster – Phil Borgeaud, Russell Borgeaud, Niel Kingma, Andres Lomp, Gabriel Mauerhofer, Matthew Perry, Stephen Power (matches 2-4), Chris Regenass, Quinton Smith, Mark Tutton, Steve Tutton, Cameron Wilkins, Mark Zervaas. COACH – Tomas Santamaria ASST COACH – Tony Naar
New Zealand Roster – Gilbert Enoka, Glenn Hamilton, Reid Hamilton, Simon Kwan, Hugh McCutcheon, Allan Pierce, COACH – Tony Barnett
Match 1 (Burnie) – AUS v NZL 3-?
Match 2 (Rosebery) – AUS v NZL 1-3: 9-15, 15-10, 15-17, 14-16
Spectators 450: Best AUS – Gabriel Mauerhofer Best NZL – Allan Pierce, Simon Kwan, Gilbert Enoka
Match 3 (Launceston) – AUS v NZL 3-?
Match 4 (Seymour) – AUS v NZL 3-?
Simon Kwan – “I think this was the trip where the NZ team was made up of the Pioneer Club team who had won the NZ club championship that year and Alan Pearce and I joined the team for the tour of Tasmania. We were pretty excited to get the win that night. From memory we then had a long bus ride back to another town where we were staying. We were down the back of the bus “celebrating” and the poor Australian team were at the front of the bus getting a lecture from Tony Naar.”
Stephen Power – “I remember missing the first game due to work commitments, but arriving and waiting in the room after the first game who I shared with Tony Naar, who was ropeable after the loss.”
Quinton Smith – “Tony was a bit upset…! Mark Tutton was fantastic in stating the obvious from a team perspective. As competitive as we setters were, I had incredible respect for Mark after this game and really enjoyed playing on the same team as Mark after this tour. 3 Games, Burnie (my debut) Win, Rosebery(loss) and Launceston (Win).”
Gabriel Mauerhofer – “Tony Naar ROPEABLE after lose in Roseberry.”
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