The 14th National Touch Championships has just concluded in Madang over the independence weekend with over twenty-two associations taking part in the 2006 touch festival and over 1,000 players participating over the five day event commencing on Friday and concluding with finals on Tuesday. 

Centres as far west as Porgera, Rabaul in the east to Wewak in the north and Central to the south all attended the most exciting extravagance in the PNG Touch calendar for 2006.

In the blue ribbon event, the Men Open finals defending champions Lae Corporate snatched a thrilling 6-5 victory over Madang in a very entertaining heart stopping encounter that had the crowd on the edge of their seats till the winning touchdown was scored in the drop-off.

In a fitting finale to the championships, champions Lae Corporate took on the challenge from Madang and defended their crown making it four consecutive tittle. Lae Corporate were lucky to get out of jail as they equalised with a couple of minutes remaining on the clock in regulation time and then won the match in extra time when PNG international Norman Steven did a clever switch with Buddy Mitau for him to evade the desperate defence and out sprinted them to score the golden point and winning touchdown.

The match was played at a ferocious pace as both teams battled to get the upper hand in this monumental battle to be crowned king of PNG touch. After the dust had settled the match had finished up 5 all after the regulation 40 minutes.

Lae Corporate were first to score when Roy Dingu sliced through some strong defence after some clever lead up work by Ari Peter and Mariat Johns on the inside.

Both teams kept the pressure on with play going from one end of the field to the other until Eddie Marks from Madang equalised to bring the score equal at one all. Again Lae Corporate took the lead when they scored in the corner via Charlie Omae after he wrong footed the defence to score easily out of reach of the out stretch hands of the defence. This time Madang equalised again slowing down play and a smart dump-split by Eddie Mark and Samson Zaroki to catch the tired Corporate defence napping on the line.

On the stroke of half time Lae Corporate took the lead again when Kevin Karrie put his name on the score sheet with a touchdown through their switch play.  

In the second half  Madang took over the match to have the measures of the Corporate boys before Oddie Mark extend their lead half way through the half  before Lae Corporate scored a special of their own with Ari Peter linking up with Buddy Mitau who outsprinted the defence to the tryline and equalise the match. The pace and intensity of the battle kept the crowd on the edge of the seat the entire 40 minutes.

Lae Corporate were first to score when Roy Dingu sliced through some strong defence after some clever lead up work by Ari Peter and Mariat Johns on the inside.

Both teams kept the pressure on with play going from one end of the field to the other until Eddie Marks from Madang equalised to bring the score equal at one all. Again Lae Corporate took the lead when they scored in the corner via Charlie Omae after he wrong footed the defence to score easily out of reach of the out stretch hands of the defence. This time Madang equalised again slowing down play and a smart dump-split by Eddie Mark and Samson Zaroki to catch the tired Corporate defence napping on the line.

On the stroke of half time Lae Corporate took the lead again when Kevin Karrie put his name on the score sheet with a touchdown through their switch play.  

In the second half  Madang took over the match to have the measures of the Corporate boys before Oddie Mark extend their lead half way through the half  before Lae Corporate scored a special of their own with Ari Peter linking up with Buddy Mitau who outsprinted the defence to the tryline and equalise the match. The pace and intensity of the battle kept the crowd on the edge of the seat the entire 40 minutes.

Madang with season campaigner brothers Eddie, Oddie, and Glen Marks well supported by Samson Zaroki played the house down but were matched with just the same intensity from the Lae Corporate strike players in Ari Peters, Mariat Johns, Chuck Seeto, Normans Stevens, Kelly Kissing and Ivan Virani.

Tireless playmaker Ari Peter and man of the match Mariat Johns kept their team in the hunt even when Madang had the lead going into the last five minutes of the game and their never say die attitude rubbed off on the rest of their team mates as they rallied together to peg back the score then went one better to score the winning point. Madang accounted for Kainanatu in their semi-final match up and Lae Corp advanced at the expense of Corporate Touch Pom in the other semi.

Madang accounted for Kainanatu in their controversial semi-final match up when Luke Waluka took his players off the field and Lae Corp advanced at the expense of Corporate Touch Pom in the other semi when Buddy Mitau intercepted a pass to outsprint the cover defence and advance the Black and Whites into their Cup Final match up with Madang.

In the Open Womens host Madang were crowned queen of PNG Touch when they ambushed defending champion Central 4-3 who went through the pool matches undefeated and was trying to make it three in a row. Again both teams played so well that there didn’t deserve to have a loser as Madang won in another titanic struggle with the match ending in another drop-off going down to three on three, before Centrals laps in defence cost them the open womens trophy for Madang to run out winners. Mary Dela from Madang was voted player of the final. With the Madang trio of Mary Dela, Margaret Goro and Helen Moses rewarded with a spot in the PNG womens side picked to go to Samoa next year. Both teams played outstanding touch throughout the five day tournament along with Corporate Touch Port Moresby.

Source: News, Photos and Results compiled by Rick Seeto of Lae Corporate Touch