Business House sports

Every year a range of social sports competitions are held in Apia. They are known as the "Business House" competitions, with teams from major government ministries and local businesses. The level of interest and involvement in these comps is very high; everyone loves to get out and have a run around once or twice a week after work. The degree of competitiveness varies across individuals and teams, but at the end of the day they're intended as social competitions and not meant to be too serious.

The first competition this year is seven-a-side touch footy. The Ministry of Prime Minister & Cabinet has fielded a team, comprised mostly of Immigration staff. We had our first game last week which saw us up against the Ministry of Foreign Affairs team. Sadly, with three or four of their players members of a touch footy team that plays in the regular "professional" competition, we were somewhat outclassed and lost the match. Yesterday's match against the TradePac team was a different story however, with our team notching up a win, four tries to three.

Sadly, I've had to restrict my participation to being the photographer and water boy. As my tattoo is still in the process of healing, I can't get out there and have a run around, which I find very frustrating. Hopefully I'll be able to start playing from next week. With the competition's pool round only lasting six weeks, I'm loathe to miss too many more matches.

The picture shows one of the Immigration officers, Vaileta, rather vigorously "touching" the ball carrier in last's weeks match against Foreign Affairs. This was as close to a big hit as we came during the match.