Busy calender for Ipatas Cup

By HENRY MORABANG
ORGANISERS of the K200,000 rugby league competition, the Coca-Cola Ipatas Cup have released its tentative calendar for next year.
In an e-mail, CCIC chief executive officer Timoty Lepa told The National that the regional challenges would run for two months – from February to March while the knock-outs will start in April.
The competition will start with Northern region challenge. It will be held in Lae on Feb 10-12.
It will be followed by the Eastern Highlands conference in Lae on Feb 17-19.
Also on the same weekend in Port Moresby, the Southern region challenge will take place.
On Feb 24-25, the Jiwaka and Western Highlands challenge will be held in Mt Hagen.
There are two different regional challenges on March 2-4. There will be one in Wabag and the other for the Southern Highlands at Tente oval in Mendi.
However, Mendi Rugby League official Buckley Tenza said recently they would not participate in the Ipatas Cup due to high cost of travel and accommodation.
In Kundiawa, the Ipatas Cup will hold its regional challenge from March 9-11 while Kimbe will host the New Guinea Islands challenge from March 16-18 at Kimbe rugby league oval.
After all the regional conferences or rugby league challenges, the CCIC will hold its first knock-outs at Johnson Siki oval in Wabag on March 30 to April 1.
The second knock-outs will be held at Lae Rugby League oval on April 6-8.
Lepa said the tentative deadline for the grand final was set for April 20-22 at Lae rugby league oval.
He thanked the National Gaming Control Board (NGCB) for supporting the tournament with K200,000.
He said the NGCB had been a minor sponsor for the past three years but had stepped forward to inject a substantial amount to back major sponsor Coca- Cola Amatil for the 2012 Ipatas Cup.
This year’s challenge is the biggest attracting 84 teams competing at six different venues throughout the highlands and Momase regions.
He said the Western Highlands had 18 teams playing in six different pools while other centres ran a four-pool competition.
The competition has exposed raw talents from the rural areas who had gone up the ranks to compete in the Digicel Cup challenge for their teams. They are PNG Kumuls such as David Loko, Stanley Hondia, Joseph Omai, Kerry Tapako, Mark Mexico and Rodney Pora to name a few.