This legendary kiwi lass has done an absolute solid for her Southland community, by converting her own shed into the local pool hall.
When the local pub where everyone used to play pool shut down, Southland local Polly Hudson turned her garage into the new local commuinty space by getting two pool tables and hosting tournaments every Wednesday night.
She even took her garage set-up a step further by investing in a pizza oven and cooks for everyone who comes to play. How sick is that?
Polly’s epic work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Her mate Michelle nominated the legend for one of the Speight’s Great Mate Awards, for keeping the Southland community and her mates together.
And Speight’s loved it. Earlier this week, Polly was announced as the winner of the Good Time Mate - for the mate you can always rely on to make the group chat plans a reality. She’s also the winner of the overall 2024 Speight’s Mate of the Year Award. Well deserved, we reckon.
Speaking to our very own Jay and Dunc, Polly said: “In a small rural community like ours - and there's a lot of others around New Zealand - your neighbours are not just your neighbours. They're your mates.'
'So I think it's about that. Catching up with mates. A problem shared is a problem halved, all the rest of it and playing a bit of pool on the side which we all love.'
As far as making the grain shed-cum-pool hall a reality, she said 'the previous owners of the property were in fact grain farming. We didn't really have a use for that, we were just sheep farming and it's a nice big empty space - we thought 'oh yeah we can put a bar in the corner here.''
'Long story short, it's just a really special meeting place - a lot of good memories and a lot of good times in there.'
And finally, on the feeling of being named Speight's Mate Of The Year for 2024, she said 'it feels pretty amazing.'
Epic to see some good ol’ kiwi ingenuity, and even better to see it being rewarded. Good shit, Polly!
