Playing sport in true Aussie style

Whether it’s running, sailing, cycling or touch footy that does it for you, Sydney has the weather, parks and water to indulge almost any sporting hobby and with more employers now sponsoring workplace teams there’s no excuse for not bringing your sneakers to work.

Mandy Smith, the manager of NSW Corporate Games, a charitable organisation that sets up corporate sporting events to raise money for Diabetes NSW, says getting involved in a company team has many benefits.

“Mailroom people to CEOs are all competing together so it’s a good opportunity for team bonding within the organisation. It’s also fun, encourages fitness and exercise and is a great way to meet people.”

For the last 17 years NSW Corporate Games has hosted a massive sporting competition for Sydney based organisations of all sizes around the city.

“This year we had 8500 competitors and over 300 organisations. Our biggest team is Optus and this year they entered about 500 people. We also had AMG, IMG, Macquarie [bank], lots of accountants and other big names.

“Competitors can choose from 22 different sports including badminton, beach volleyball, basketball, cricket, dragon boat racing, golf, indoor carting, turn ball, netball, poker, running, sailing, soccer, softball, squash, swimming, table tennis, tennis, ten-pin bowling, touch footy, triathlon, indoor volley ball,” Mandy explained

Over 1000 officials work on the four-day March event, as well as numerous coordinators, umpires and volunteers. Organisations can enter as many or as few people in a team as they wish. Both the organisations and individual teams can win first, second or third place.

“The dragon boat racing is always really fun and competitive. The CSC Red Dragons team always have a big fight with [consulting group] GHD, ING and Macquarie,” Mandy said.

“Poker is another good one. AAPT won it this year and it was a real battle of the telcos. Telstra came second and funnily enough Star City Casino came fourth.”

On the flip side, you can find a sporting team to join outside your office by starting your search with a sport you would like to play.

Baseball is a good example with a number of leagues operating in Sydney.

Dr John Dumay heads the North Sydney Leagues Baseball Club, which currently has 25 teams competing from junior level to its open age division. He says baseball is a great leveller where people from all walks of life are brought together through a love of the game.

 “We had “packer” Pete who used to pack the shelves at Woollies playing with another guy who was a surgeon from St Vincent’s [hospital] – there’s just a great sense of camaraderie of belonging to a team, which breaks down all the social barriers and gets you out of the house,” he explained.

“We consider our A and B grades to be very serious and then we go down to G grade, which we call “beer grade” as it’s an excuse to have a drink with your mates.”

Other Sydney sporting groups that offer year-round fun, exercise and networking opportunities include running clubs, cricket, netball, basketball and footy teams.

CareerOne has put a “sporting” directory together to get you started:

Running
The Hash Hound Harriers are a worldwide running club that describe themselves as “a drinking club with a running problem”. The 1700 global “kennels” that make up the Hash Hound Harriers are run locally but welcome international members.

In Sydney there are at lest ten kennels that run on a weekly basis after work. To find one in your area visit www.hashhouseharriersinsydney.com or to do a national search www.hhh.asn.au.

Footy
Australians are mad keen on footy, which includes rugby union, rugby league, soccer [football] and Australian Football League also known as Aussie Rules.
Here are some useful links to help you find your nearest team or club.

www.rugby.com.au/community_rugby/find_a_club/find_a_club,1049.html
www.playrugbyleague.com.au/
www.footballaustralia.info/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
www.afl.com.au/Development/PlayAFL/tabid/10244/Default.aspx

Cricket
If you’ve heard of the Ashes, a test cricket series played between England and Australia biennially, you must know that the Aussies have a fixation with this bat and ball sport. To get involved in a team check out
http://www.playcricket.com/menu.asp.

Netball and basketball teams can be found at www.netballnsw.com/extra.asp?id=1168&OrgID=2 and www.basketball.net.au/FS_extra.asp?id=1015&OrgID=1.

Other
For more information on other sports, visit the Australian Sports Commission website run by the Australian Government. www.ausport.gov.au/information/finding_sport_information.