Issue 127 : 23 April 2023
Talofa Lava, Kia Orana, Malo E Leilei, Tena Koutou, Hello ...
... and welcome to the latest issue of “For The Love Of The Game”, the official e-zine of the New Zealand Amateur Sport Association Inc., founded in Wellington, New Zealand in 2017.
If you have any feedback on this issue, ideas for future articles, or would like to contact the Editor, please click here. And, you are invited to forward the e-zine to others you know, who may be interested in reading it. An archive of earlier editions of the e-zine can be found here.
For those who follow Twitter, you can also follow the Association, @AmateurSportNZ. If you are interested in applying for membership of the Association, please click here.
2023 Annual General Meeting Focuses On Year Ahead ...
The seventh Annual General Meeting of the Association was held at the Wellesley Boutique Hotel in Wellington on Tuesday last week, providing an opportunity for Association members and stakeholders to reflect on the achievements of the past year, and to consider the challenges and opportunities of the year ahead.
In presenting the Annual Report, Association Chairman, Gordon Noble-Campbell noted that, “the challenges faced by New Zealand at the present time are no less experienced in our community sport organisations than in any other area of society."
"At a time when individuals and families face economic and financial pressure, the role of our amateur sport communities in providing positive, safe, inclusive and welcoming environments is a critical element of our national social infrastructure”.
You can read the full Annual Report of the 2022/23 financial year, by clicking here. (Note: the audited 2022/23 financial statements can be viewed on the Incorporated Societies website).
Association President And Vice-President Elected ...
At last week’s Annual General Meeting, Marian George (QSM) was re-elected President of the Association and John Morrison (MNZM) was re-elected Vice-President of the Association. The Association’s Officers are also ex-officio members of the Association’s Board. Life Member Andy Leslie (MNZM) continues in the honorary role of Association Patron.
(John Morrison MNZM, Marian George QSM and Andy Leslie MNZM)
Three New Association Board Members Appointed ...
Three new Board members were appointed at the 2023 Annual General Meeting.
They are Tirath Singh Atwal, Lisa Jones and Aleks Noble-Campbell. Atwal is the Chairperson of the New Zealand Kabaddi Federation Incorporated and is based in Auckland. Jones is the Chief Executive Officer of the Wellington Hockey Association Incorporated, while Noble-Campbell (an investment banking analyst, based in Auckland) has previously served as Board Secretary for the Association before being appointed to his new role.
The Association’s Board has a good mix of competence and representation and will play a key role in forming and implementing the Association’s strategy over the coming year. The incoming Board will have its first meeting on Tuesday, 16 May 2023.
(The Association’s Board welcomes three new members for 2023/24)
The Sports "Roll Of Honour" ...
With ANZAC Day imminent, it is timely to recall that many emerging and eminent sportspeople lost their lives in fighting for the values of the British Empire in World War One.
Norman Cummins, (born on 10 April 1893), was employed by Alexander Cowan and Sons in Wellington as a storeman, before enlisting in August 1914 to serve in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force which captured German Samoa, in New Zealand's first military action of the war. Norman's father was a celebrated trombonist and conductor of the Wellington Garrison Band. A member of the Brooklyn Harriers Club, it was on Norman's return from Samoa that he won the five-mile cross-country Wellington Provincial Championship in 1915.
(Norman Cummins, 1893 to 1916, Brooklyn Harriers Club)
In January 1916, he left New Zealand for the Middle East as a Private in the 9th Reinforcements, Otago Infantry Battalion, D Company of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. A “clean sport, much respected by the athletes” he fell in action (having relinquished his on-field commission), in the September 1916 Battle of Flers-Courcelette in France.
Upcoming Incorporated Societies Act 2022 Seminars ...
Canterbury and Southland are the next two regions to host the Association’s popular seminar on the Incorporated Societies Act 2022, with the "University of Canterbury" and "Active Southland" both scheduling regional seminars next month, (May).
(Southland and Canterbury are holding seminars in May for local sport communities)
The enactment of the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 impacts all incorporated community sport organisations (ICSOs) throughout New Zealand and is the most significant legislative change to affect amateur sport in this country in over a century.
Seminar attendees learn about the current status of the change and what clubs are required to do so that they are compliant with the new law. If your sport community is interested in having the Association present on the new law, please contact the Association by clicking here.
Viewpoint : "$1 Billion Of Volunteer Support At Risk" ...
With the delivery of sport to Kiwis young and old throughout New Zealand largely in the hands of volunteer-led incorporated community clubs, the cost-of-living crisis and overbearing regulatory change is placing increased pressure on those who coach, administer and govern local clubs.
(An estimated $1 billion of community sport volunteer value is at risk)
The average annual value of unpaid volunteer hours to an incorporated sport club is estimated to be $125,000. With over 7,500 community sport clubs in New Zealand, the total unpaid value of sport delivery through clubs to local communities is estimated to be over $1 billion per annum.
(Local authorities risk an "own goal" if costs of utilising resources become prohibitive)
The Association suggests that a reduction in volunteers and participants, may also result in a significant reduction in the use of local authority sport facilities, at a direct cost to ratepayers. While ratepayers should not bear the total cost of community sport’s use of grounds and facilities, councils risk an “own goal” if community use by sport clubs reduces significantly.
You can read more, here.
From The Archives ...
A SPORTING CHAMPION
WANGANUI CHRONICLE, VOLUME 73, ISSUE 47, 25 FEBRUARY 1930, PAGE 6
“The Auckland distance runner, J. Savidan, the vanquisher of R. A. Rose, won the three-mile race at the Wellington Provincial Championships on Saturday, but declined acceptance of the title. This is a display of the true amateur spirit. There is too much pot-hunting in sport to-day and it is refreshing to have this display of real amateurism, playing for the love of the game. Mr Savidan is a sportsman and Auckland, doubtless, is proud of him.”
(The many faces of Billy Savidan, New Zealand champion athlete)
John William (“Billy”) Savidan was born on 23 May 1902, the second son of Francois Yves Louis and Janet (nee Tait) Savidan of Crown Hill, Takapuna, Auckland. He first came to prominence as a competitive runner in his early 20’s, while his younger brother Frank burst onto the Auckland athletics scene in the 1930’s, as a school leaver.
At the peak of his running career in the 1930’s, it was said that Bill Savidan was the greatest all-round distance runner New Zealand had produced, with his record in the national cross-country championship unequalled by any other man.
Savidan was a five-time New Zealand cross-country champion, also representing New Zealand at the British Empire Games in 1930 and at the Olympic Games in 1932. In three successive seasons he won the New Zealand mile championship and he was the New Zealand three-mile champion on six separate occasions. It was said of Savidan that, “no athlete in New Zealand is better liked; certainly, there is none more unassuming and modest in victory.”
(Billy Savidan lines-up (circled) to race against American Leo Lermond, far right in 1930)
In the report referred to above, while Bill Savidan won the three-mile race (while the current New Zealand champion over the distance), he declined to accept the Wellington provincial title allowing the defending champion, local favourite Scottish Harriers athlete Fred Silver, to retain it.
Billy married Norma Dorothy Hutchinson in 1931. He died sixty years later, on 8 November 1991. he is remembered in the Manukau Memorial Gardens, Auckland and by the “Savidan Cup” which was inaugurated by the Ellerslie Amateur Athletic & Harrier Club in 1932.
The Final Word ...
“They never fail who die in a great cause.”
(George Gordon Byron)
