Welcome to our special episode of Fiji Airways TEIVOVO rugby show featuring the Fiji bitter Marist 7s which also happens to be the 46th edition of the mother of all rugby sevens tournaments in Fiji
Culden Kamea
It all started in 1976 with the first prize being five cartons of the sportsman’s beer which all nine teams promptly sat around and shared and according to that scholar of history coach Ben Colley that’s also where the first taki of beer started in Fiji 😀
Like every other sporting event in Fiji and around the world the Fiji Bitter Marist Sevens has been affected by the global covert 19 pandemic and as such numbers of participating teams this year was restricted to 48 men’s teams 12 women’s teams and 16 age grade teams 18 to 21 year olds.
Among the men’s teams was a very special one the all black sevens the real magic of the Fiji bit of Marist7 is actually not so much what happens on the field although that is pretty special as well but what happens behind the scenes that makes it tick so efficiently and so successfully for nearly half a century now
And your role here? Yeah I’m the director ticket sales and reconciliation for the march 7th and I’ve been involved with the madison for a number of years after leaving high school i took a bit of a break when i got married in 99 but came back to the scene in 2012 when i came back to Fiji after serving in Tonga.
Yeah so yeah i’m glad to be here and i lead a team of 13 staff they are comprised of the two banks westpac and anz so what we do is ticket reconciliation when the tickets are printed we recount them to make sure they’re accurate and then every morning we have a meeting with the tellers and i try to brief them about the importance of telling accuracy being vigilant
And i usually say a prayer for them before the day begins and the same thing here with my team we monitor ticket sales and we provide an update to press say every three or four hours and how our ticket sales are progressing
As you know our ticket sales are printed during the period so we only got eighty percent of the stadium as well as the embankment as well as the grass here so and at the end of the day our team actually goes and counts the cash with the team
So we want to make sure that yes there’s transparency in the way we’ve accounted for the funds for the money that is being collected at the end of a march 7th tournament there and we are all volunteers here.
Yes we’re all volunteers thank you for playing your part and bringing all of this together my second question which team are you supporting here today and why i guess there are a lot of teams that are here but i think being a marist way i have to support my own team
I just like to add something i work here we work very closely with the Fiji police force in terms of the security of the funds and also the transits and i like to acknowledge their support over the years because if it wasn’t for their support you know something may have happened and you know certainly doesn’t happen so thank you to the Fiji police force, to the commission and the men on the ground that have been helping us every day Volunteers with a marist family spirit that’s a big part of the key to their success tournament .
For TeivovoRugby.com I’m Culden Kamea.
