This Association was formed in the early 1920s by Mr Edward Guy and his wife Edna Guy. Edward Guy was a prominent member of the community and was editor of the local Rotorua Post newspapers. Closely associated with him was Mrs Jean Lodge MBE, who was for many years Secretary, player, and our delegate to the New Zealand Basketball Association (as it was then known).
From a small association of six teams on two courts at the Government Gardens, the Rotorua Association, encouraged by the Rotorua Borough Council, initiated the now famous Kurangaituku Tournament as part of the town's Spring Festival celebrations. Such was the growth and the gain in popularity that President Mrs Jean Lodge in the 1950s, was instrumental in persuading the Council to move to Kuirau Park with eight courts and a small pavilion.
Such was the skill and organisation of this Association that they had by this time already run a B Grade New Zealand Tournament in 1952 at the Government Gardens and a full New Zealand Tournament of four grades in 1958. We were to run three more successful New Zealand Tournaments, the last in 1982.
By this time our numbers had grown to the extent that more courts were needed. Expansion of the existing courts became difficult because of the nature of the thermal activity and unstable ground beneath the courts. Moves to relocate to a new site came in 1992 and after much negotiation, work was started on a site at Westbrook for 20 courts and a new Pavilion - pure luxury!
Finally, the move was made and we took over in 1994 and officially opened in our current premises in 1995.
This started in 1933 with six teams on one weekend and grew to become the biggest tournament to be held in New Zealand.
Because it was held at the end of the season (September) many teams made it their end-of-year celebrations.
To cater to all teams from North and South Islands and several from Australia, the tournament was divided into two weekends - the first proving most popular.
One year we had 203 teams for the first weekend and 145 for the second tournament, a total of 348 teams.
1995 was the first year that we were able to accept all entries and not ballot out 20-30 teams.
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