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November 22, 2024 5 mins

The touch module at Nunweek Park has had massive numbers, thanks to the work of Shelly Johnstone and her family. 

They’ve been running the module for 25 years. 

We shine the spotlight on Shelly this week and get a feel for the amount of passion she and her family have for the module and for those playing in it. 

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, if you are lucky enough to go down to
Nonewek Park, we'll certain me the days that I do
on a Tuesday. Now that we're into summer mode, it
is a site to behold. You've got look, I'm going
to find out exactly how many teams are there. But
there's a touch module at the back of the hockey
turfs down there the big park, non week Park. So
I thought I'd go to Canterbury Touch and find out

(00:22):
how it all has evolved. And let's go to Canterbury
Touch and to Shelley Johnstone and say.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good morning, good morning, how are you look.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
I'm great. I hear that you are the person responsible
for this amazing touch module. How many teams have you
got involved on a Tuesday night this year?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
We have one hundred and seventeen teams.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
That is a lot of looking after. How do you
manage that on a spreadsheet? I wouldn't know where to begin.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, it is quite difficult. I guess I'm just used
to it now.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
How long have you been doing it?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Me and my husband used to live next door to
and there was a wee module over there that was
started I believe from the sports coordinator. It Brings intermediate school.
I used to coach a team and he ended up
getting a vice principal's position in the Bay of Plenty

(01:17):
and I used to go and help him out because
we live next door. He asked if I'd like to
take it over because it was going to go under.
He just couldn't get anyone to run it. Me and
my husband decided that we'd start doing it, and it's
been about twenty five years.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Wow, fantastic service. So it's obviously grown exponentially.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yes, I think we started with around thirty teams and
then it just blew up. And about fifteen years into
running it, Touch Canterbury tackled me and asked me if
i'd like to become their administrator. And then I started
working at Touch Canterbury and me and my husband and

(01:55):
my two children we still run the module.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
It is a site really, You've not got the young
people playing it, You've got parents. You've got grandparents who
love coming down and seeing their little ones perform.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
It is. It's absolutely fantastic. I think that's the joy
for us of running it. Of course their kids are
much much older now, they're all heavily involved down there
on the ground too, and we all love children, so
it's really really nice to see the kids running around.
It's nice that it's successful. It's one of the biggest
ones in christ Church. And yeah, I don't know how
we're going to give it away. We enjoy it too.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Much, the longevity of it which is important. So there's
that module at none week. What are the other modules
around christ.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Church we have At the moment, We've got around thirty
one competitions in the Canterbury area. Some of those are
counted as a senior and a junior competition, even if
they run on one night, they just classes separate competitions.
Touch is really quite successful in the Canterbury area, I
guess because the fees are quite cheap compared to a

(02:59):
lot of other sports, and also it's a fun game
and all kids love it. It's just nice thing all
the kids running around on the park. Quite a few
people take individual players into their competitions as well, so
no one tends to miss out. And a majority of
the teams that are put into the competitions around Canterbury
are from schools, So a lot of schools put makeup

(03:21):
teams and they pop them into competitions that are close
to their school. We've got a really good pick up
area in Herewood. But I guess when you get big,
people like playing at your module because there's more competition.
They're at a smaller module. It's some of the smaller
modules you might pay, you know, kind of play the
same team every four weeks. So I think that's why

(03:42):
that's probably one of the big things. And also I
like to be highly organized, so I run a tight ship.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
No surprises there, you'd be. Yeah, the camaraderie, the collaboration
that I've seen on the nights that I've been down there,
you know, the young referees that you've got as well,
which is good to call initiative to have that. But
if someone hasn't quite tuned up, or they couldn't get
a park because parking is a bit tight, Yeah, they
lend players, so that's it's a really Yeah. As I said,

(04:10):
it's the collaboration between the teams is fabulous. You're priceless
for what you do because I can't imagine many people
want to pick up and run that.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, possibly not, but once you've got it up and running,
it's easy. We've been doing it so long now we
could do it with our eyes closed. Like it's a
bit of organization at the start and at the end
when we're doing finals and prize giving and things like that,
we normally have to open a lot of extended family
members to do barbecues and things like that. But we
have a lot of good people down at now, the parents,

(04:42):
the coaches and managers. They're all awesome and you know
they also have to give up their time to coach
or manage the teams and make sure that at the
right field and the right place every week. So they
are all absolutely fantastic as well.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Well, I'll tell you what, it's pretty easy to go
down and they find where you're meant to be to
be watching and letting the young ones just play whatever
they want to do and how they want to be
part of a team, and everyone's involved. So, as I
said right at the beginning, it is a sight to behold,
and you do a fantastic job. Shelley Johnstone, you are
our superhero this week.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Oh I thank you so much. You're gonna make me cry.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Well, there's no money involved and we haven't got any prizes,
but honestly, what you do is priceless.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Honestly, just for your kind words just make me so happy.
That's so nice, and that's definitely why I, me and
my family do it. For more from News Talks, the'd
be listen live on air or online, and

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Keep our shows with you wherever you go with our
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