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Thompson's
TOUCH ALMANAC
Cary Thompson - Author and Historian
1976 to 2023
Most events from 2023 are finalised. Events and updataes from 2024 onwards will not be recorded. Each organisation will need to maintain thier own
history post 2023.
International Events
The International Events section contains records of all the results and history from the categories represented by the logos and images below. The first International game was between Australia and New Zealand and was recorded in 1976 when a team of Australian Masters players toured New Zealand and played three test matches in Auckland on the 2/3/4th of April. The first World Cup did not eventuate until another twelve years had passed and was held on the Gold Coast of Queensland in1988 with Australia becoming the inaugural Champions – a title the have held undefeated until this day.
Australia's Test record is the most impressive having played 301 tests in all divisions with a 81% win record with the Mens 35/45 and 50 years divisions remaining undefeated. The Womens Open have lost only 3 games out of 46 Test matches played having a 93% win record. Touring teams from Australia in the Age Divisions have travelled to South Africa and Europe where they competed successfully in Open divisions at the European Championships. The Australian teams also competed successfully at the All Nations Championships held in New Zealand in 2005.
World Cup
Tests
Europe
O.I.M.
Master Countries Results, Scorers and Representatives
World Cup Results, Scorers and Representatives
World Cup History
The first World Cup was played at Carrara Oval on the Gold Coast in Queensland from the 14-16th November, 1988. Four categories were contested with those being Mens, Womens and Mixed Open and Mens 35's divisions with Australia winning each title . Five counties were represented; Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the United States of America. This compare vastly to the 127 teams that contested the 2019 World Cup in Malaysia where 28 countries were present.
From the menus displayed on this page you will see that besides the World Cup Results, the Representative Caps and Touchdown scorers from these events is also available for perusal as is a comparison of the results of each other FIT Members that competed at these events. Australia’s Record as World Champions is also highlighted.
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In 1997 a separate Age Division World Cup was arranged for Senior and Master Touch players and was played at Paul Eggers fields in Southport Queensland. Five divisions were played; Mens, Womens and Mixed 30 years. Men 35 and 40 years with eight countries competing, playing a total of 218 games.
World All Schools
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The World All-Schools was originally set down for the year 2000 in Fiji but the Australian Government banned Fiji from international sporting contacts with Australia due to the coup and an unconstitutional government in Fiji at the time. Eventually the World All Schools Championships was inaugurated in 2001 to coincide with the Queensland State Schools Championships. The second event was held in 2003 also to coincide with the Queensland Schools event. In 2006 the event went outside of Australia and was designed to run alongside the Asian School Championships held in Singapore
World Cup Results
1997 Senior Results Gold Coast
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Other Statistics
World Cup Age Division Scorers
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World All Schools Results
2006 Results Singapore
World Club Championships
Alongside the 1997 Seniors Divisions World Cup on the Gold Coast in Australia, a World Club Championships was also conducted. Twenty-five club teams from Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea contested the inaugural World Club event. Divisions played were Mens and Mixed only as no Womens teams nominated. Age categories ranged from 30 years and over to 50 years and over. The only other club event on the world stage was started in Singapore in 2000 by Bryan O'Connor when he founded the Asian Club Championships, the records for which are not available.
Test Results, Scorers and Representatives
The first International Tour was undertaken by an Australian Masters team in 1976. Ray Vawdon’s connections with Qantas and his access to assisted tickets were vital in financing the tour. The team selected set their sights on Auckland and with wins in matches against Eastern Suburbs, St George and Cronulla-Sutherland first grade Rugby League teams they were set for any opposition from New Zealand. The second series was the Inaugural International (Open Divisions) in 1985 in Melbourne when New Zealand played a Mens Open and Mens 30's Test against Australia.
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A return test series in 1986 in Auckland saw the Mens, Womens, Mixed and Masters divisions compete only to have Australia remain undefeated in all Test Matches. It was not until 1993 two days after the National Championships (State versus State) that an underprepared Australian contingent lost the Mens and Mixed Test to their arch rivals. In 1987 Australia Teams toured Canada ​and the United
States of America (Kangaroo Kup) playing three Test matches in the Mens, Womens, Mixed and Masters divisions in Ontario against Canada. The following year a rematch was arranged prior to the inaugural World Cup on the Gold Coast in Australia. A single match tri-series was played with Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
In November 1995 a Mixed team toured Japan and played in a tri-series with Great Britain and the host country. Australia scored 74 tries and had only 1 scored against them throughout the series. In 2010 a Trans Tasman series in the Age Divisions was played in Townsville. Divisions played were, Mens and Womens 30's, Men 40, 45 and 50 years with Australia winning 14 of the 15 Test matches.
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In 2003 a Super Series Test series was staged in New Zealand featuring Youth, Opens and Aged Division Tests. Although Australia won 7 matches to 4 they lost the Open and Age categories thus losing the series. In 2013 a Trans Tasman series was hosted by New Zealand who failed to win a match on home soil for the first time since 1991.
YOUTH TESTS
The traditional Youth Test series between Australia and New Zealand commenced in 1991 with tests in the Boys, Girls and Mixed age divisions played through the Secondary Schools System. Test via the Schools System continued until 1999 then in 2000 the National Associations open the event to not only school touch players but also community players. It was not until 2009 that the Mens, Women and Mixed 20 years divisions were introduced alongside the Under 18 Years divisions.
Youth World Cups were played in 2001, 2005 and 2018 which expanded the countries (mainly in the Pacific Asia Regions), competing in the Youth divisions. In 2014 European Youth Championships introduced Countries from Europe and Africa to international Youth Competition.
In 2023 the Federation of International Touch created a Youth platform in the northern and southern hemispheres to cater for international competition abandoned by Covid-19. The Asia Pacific Cup saw Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Malaysia Niue, New Zealand, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore compete in a test series encompassing the three division in Under 18 and 20 years
F.I.T also created The Atlantic Cup catering for Youth competition for Belgium, Cayman Islands, China, England, France, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, United States of America and Wales. Both Test series were successful with Australia winning the six divisions in their event while in Europe, England won the Men and Women 20 years and Girls 18 years divisions. France won the Mixed 15 Division and Wales the Mixed 18 division.
Youth Test Results
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European Championships
The European Championships was the brainchild of the then FIT President Cary Thompson. In1996 the first Championships were conducted at the Halifax Rugby League Fields in the north of England. In the early years of its development club teams as well as touring teams from other counties were encouraged to participate but not allowed to compete for the Championship Trophy in the finals.
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Australia competed with its senior teams in 2000, 2002 and 2004 with the second tour in 2002 taking in South Africa and regional England where the Australian players arranged coaching and referee clinics for the local touch community. One can see such a long exhaustive trip makes players extremely tired.
The last FIT conducted Championships were held in Paris in 2008 after which the European Federation of Touch conducted future tournaments. In 2018 the Championship held in Nottingham hosted seventeen countries playing in eight divisions with some sixty-one teams competing. This was the largest Touch event outside of the World Cup.
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In 2014 Europe Touch created the Youth Cup which was played annually until 2019 when it officially became the European Youth Championships. During this time and to develop the skill-set of it players, Europe have created the Home Nations Championships and the Mainland Cup. In addition Jersey and Guernsey have an Inter-Insular tournament hosted annually between the Islands. Tremendous strides have been made by the Regional Committee to establish itself as the leading developing Touch region in the world. This is a credit to the personnel of the European Federations' Committee.
European Results
European Youth Results
Results
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Other Statistics
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Home Nations
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United Kingdom countries needed to increase their competitive levels outside of the European Championships and World Cups conducted by FIT.
In 2005 England Ireland. Scotland and Wales decided to play in a series of “Friendlies” every two years. The records of which are not available for 2005 and 2007. However in 2013 the European Community sought recognition of this and the Mainland Cup as official FIT sanctioned events. Subsequently the history of the Home Nations is now available.
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Mainland Cup
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The Mainland Cup likes its counterpart in the UK started as an informal flow on that evolved from an annual friendly series between Germany and France. These events began in 2007 and allowed National European teams to acquire valuable experience for their squads in a non-European Championships year, with one eye on Europe’s only major international competition the following year.
Home Nations Results
Mainland Cup Results
Other International Matches (O.I.M.)
South Pacific Championships
Like the European countries, the South Pacific Island Nations wanted regular competition between each other but did not want a four year gap between such competitions. The Inaugural South Pacific Touch Championships was to be held in Fiji in 1985 but did not eventuate. An International Touch Series was a concept put forward by Ann Hindson and John Watson from the New Zealand Touch Association, whose idea was that Island competition would be an ideal lead up to the Trans Tasman Tests series against Australia, and a prelude to the 1999 World Cup.
The first event was conducted in 1998 and the inaugural group consisted of Federation Members New Zealand, Niue and Samoa with the National Maori team being invited to join them in the competition. This was significant for the Maori group as it would be the first time in their history that they competed against a National New Zealand team in any sport.
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The Island nations were not financially strong and could simply not afford an annual event so the idea of a bi-annual competition to coincide with the South Pacific Games was accepted as a general concept. In 2003 at the South Pacific Games in Fiji the Touch
event became the South Pacific Championships. This continued bi-annually until 2009 when the South Pacific Games were held in Noumea, New Caledonia. Unfortunately Touch was not recognised and despite the best efforts of the Islands Touch Communities the sport was not played. It was not until six years had passed before Touch was again part of the South Pacific games in Port Moresby.
All Nations
With the disappointment of missing out on hosting the 2007 World Cup Touch, New Zealand organised a mid term event for National teams in 2005. The event was held in Auckland and named the All Nations Championships.
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The Federation of International Touch endorsed the event but did not sanction it. Thus teams like the NZ Academy, NZ Maori and Oceania
were allowed to compete. Consequently sixteen nations and invitees competed in the nine divisions available. Records were poorly kept of the event but what is available can be found by clicking on the Results tab.
Results
Unofficial Test Matches
In 2006 Lebanon and Australia were due to play Test matches on 18th November at the Canterbury Velodrome - The Mediterranean Cup International Series. Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstance the event was cancelled at the last minute. The series was never re-introduced.
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In 2017 a Trans Tasman Open Series was held in May at the Sunshine Coast Stadium, Kawana Waters, Queensland. Prior to the Trans Tasman a tri-series was played between a Invitational Japanese team and Australian and New Zealand teams in the Mens and Womens divisions. The scoreboard reflects a surprise result.
Later that same year in September a Age Divisions Trans Tasman also played at Kawana Waters. During this series both teams played in a Womens Over 27 Years division. At the time FIT did not recognise Women 27's as an official division and it was not recognised until the 2019 World Cup
In 2023 the Malaysian and Thailand Touch Associations met In Putrajaya, Malaysia to contest the first ever International between the two countries. The event was titled The Trans Peninsular Test Series and was a two game Womens "Friendly Test" between Thailand and it Southern Neighbour.
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Thailand had never ventured into a Test series before whereas Malaysia had played Test against China in 2017 in the Mixed Division. This was the first encounter for both countries in the Womens Division. Malaysia had sent Womens teams to the World Cup, but Thailand had only sent Mixed teams to the World Cup, Youth World Cup and All Nations.
Unofficial World Cup Matches
During the 2019 World Cup in Malaysia the Cook Island Mens Open team were deemed ineligible to compete as a team that could competition points. Thus their games were deemed a forfeit for them and all were classed as an O.I.M.
Results
World Youth Challenge
After the success of the 2005 Youth World Cup the 2009 event was scheduled to be played in New Zealand. Unfortunately poor planning, lack of budgeting and a newly appointed New Zealand Touch CEO saw the event struggle to get off the ground. Furthermore an agreement between Australia and New Zealand to host a Trans
Tasman Youth Series at the same time effectively hijacked the planned Youth World Cup as FIT were not made aware of the proposed Youth Test Series.
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Both New Zealand and Australia knew the Test series would be disruptive to the World Cup so the host country planned the Youth Challenge to compensate as many countries had committed resources to attend the World Cup and had booked accommodation and flights.
Asian Club Championships
In 2002 Asian regional Director Bryan O'Connor created the Asian Club Championship with the idea of expanding and developing the sport within the Asian region. The event was held in Singapore for several years before moving to Malaysia in 2007. Results are sketchy and not available for the inaugural year. In 2006 the World University Touch games and International Challenge were conducted alongside the Asian Clubs Championships.
Each Countries Results Representatives and Scorers
Each Countries Combined Results
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This category contains the complete results history for each country that has competed at an International level. It encompasses the World Cup, Test, European, South Pacific and OIM results
Results
Representative Caps
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Representative caps are awarded to both players and direct team officials and when a player retires they sometime move to a coaching or managerial position within a team. Such was the case with Kerry Norman who at the 2011 World Cup in Scotland was awarded her 100th cap being the first Australian to achieve this honour and only the second person behind New Zealand Legend Peter Walters, to reach the century. Peter has now 133 caps. The list of Representatives below include match played in World Cups, Tests and other Internationals such as the European Championships and All Nations.
It is interesting to see the record of Tony Trad and Gary “Bear” Rose who have 103 and 95 caps respectively and are third and fourth on the all time list behind Peter Walters and Kerry Norman. Both officials contribution since 1997 on the International stage is an example of the dedication of not only players but of Coaches and Managers to the sport.
Touchdown Scorers
When it comes to scoring touchdown there is none better than Peter Walters and Gavin Shuker who have both reached the magical century mark. In Australia, Lennie Ryan and David Cheung, while not disputing the figures will still argue all day long as who who has scored the most. While Len leads at an International Level by a mere 3 David leads at a national level – so the rivalry goes on and on. Marikki Watego, Kristin Boss and Samantha Rodgers lead the way for the Women with 77, 51 and 50 respectively.
Referees
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Love them or hate them Referees are an integral part of Touch Football history and indeed the history of any sport. Their achievements go unnoticed unless they "make a mistake" and the mistake is only seen by those not happy by a decision, not by all watching. The files attached contain the International Appointments made at every FIT event since 1976.
International Referee Appointments
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Referee Appointments Volume 1 (A-F)
Referee Appointments Volume 2 (G-L)
Referees who do not have a photograph next to their appointments can rectify the situation by sending a pic of themselves to me. If anyone in the Referring community has a photo of their colleagues, especially those in the "early years" of the appointments, then please send it to me.
Who is the unmasked Rider
Who could forget that magic moment when the Lone Horseman galloped his steed into centre arena and with a rear and a crack of the whip signalled the beginning of the 24th Modern Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000.
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The rider was Steve Jeffreys aboard his horse Ammo and his performance was seen by a crowd of over 110,000 spectators and a TV audience of 4.5 billion people, becoming an instant folk hero to millions of followers
Not so the hundreds of followers in the Manly district, he was simply known as the likable larkin, Manly Touch Referee, “Jethro”. A local Dry-Cleaning proprietor, Jethro was an integral part of the Touch Referees Association instrumental in the developing of young referees in the local community and the wider Regional, State and National Referee organisations.
Jethro, along with a large group of colleagues, represented Manly at the Annual Australian Club Championships on the Gold Coast for many years. A change in his business environment caused him to give up his beloved Manly and move to his Equestrian Excellence Centre on the Central Coast NSW in 1996. Steve officiated at a District, Regional, State, National and International Levels refereeing World Cup and Test Matches in New Zealand and Australia in the early nineties.
Honour Boards
Touch started as a fitness and skills training aid for players involved in the Rugby Codes in Australia and no doubt hybrids of it are being played all over the world. In 1969 a formal competition commenced between teams at Snape Park in Kingsford, Sydney. This venue is only half a mile from where the 1999 World Cup was played. From then, the sport progressed rapidly throughout Australia and New Zealand.
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In 1985 the Federation of International Touch was formed in Melbourne with Canada, USA, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Australia the inaugural members. The world wide expansion of the sport was the vision of Peter Rooney and Phil Smith.
No sporting event takes place without the dedicated officials who run the organisation. Attached are the records of the Officials who have served the International Touch Body since Paul Eggers became their first President back in 1986 and the Federations Life Members Honour Board.
Old Newsletters
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Back in 2001 to 2003 FIT published a series of electronic Newsletters to inform the Touch community of events that were happening within Touch Organisations Internationally. The publications came out at random times with some of headings in the Newsletters being; Great Moments in Touch, FIT Members Articles, Great Touch Teams of the Twentieth Century, Letters from Readers, Famous Interviews and The Legends Club. The newsletters existed over a three year period and were distributed by email. The final article was published in August 2003.
2001 February
2001 April
2001 June
2001 August
2001 October
2001 November
2002 March
2002 August
2003 April
2003 August