Jarrod Hoskins was announced the winner of this year's CCNZ CablePrice Auckland Regional Excavator Operator Competition at the Auckland Branch meeting on 20 February 2023.  Jarrod competed at the Auckland competition held 10-11 February 2023 in Papakura.

Jarrod works for Fulton Hogan and has competed in previous Auckland competitions held at "Big Boys Toys".  To win the title, competitors had to navigate a series of challenges including opening a bottle of beer with a beer opener, moving a hoop over wire without touching the wire and a bench press (which didn't require any weightlifting on the part of the competitor!).

2019 Auckland Regional Champion Tevita Tautua'a of Vita Civil Limited claimed second place, and 2017 Auckland Regional Champion Nick Cain of MacKenzie Civil claimed third place.

Pictured: Auckland's Excavator Operator Competition Finalists at the Auckland Branch Meeting on Monday 20 February

L to R: Nick Cain (3rd Place), Andy Marsh, Tevita Tautua'a (2nd Place), Tim Andrew (CablePrice), Jarrod Hoskins (1st Place)

Regional competition organiser Andy Marsh said that the level of competition at this year's event had been fantastic and all the competitors displayed outstanding skill and a fabulous attitude. Andy also commented the level of attention paid to Health and Safety throughout the competition was outstanding. He congratulated all competitors on competing while maintaining safety standards.

Jarrod will now go on to compete for the national title against 10 regional champions and Defending Champion Troy Calteaux at the CCNZ CablePrice National Excavator Operator Competition final in March 2023, held at Central Districts Field Days in Manawatu.

Check out the highlights video from Auckland's Excavator Operator competition>>

CCNZ Auckland Branch would like to thank Marty McCardle for his support in setting up and running the event for us - it wouldn't happen without him.  Also a big thanks to Troy and Sue Wheeler for providing the venue for this years competition.

Thank you to all of our sponsors:

National sponsors
Naming rights & platinum sponsor: CablePrice
Gold sponsors: Attach2, Connexis, First Gas, Hirepool, Humes and Z Energy
Silver sponsors: Milwaukee

Local sponsors
Castle Portable Buildings, CDS NZ, Contractor, Doug the Digger, El Finchy Productions, Franklin Smith, Geotechnics, Global Survey, GPIL, Pipeline & Civil, Stellar Recruitment 

Some photos from the event

Beer Open Challenge	Pad Level Challenge
Auckland Judges: Roald Badenhorst, Marty McCardle, Laurie Vercoe, Andy Marsh, Anthony McClough