Issue 143 : 3 December 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.
RNZ’s Morning Report Investigates Act’s Challenges ...
Last week, Bridget Tunnicliffe from Radio New Zealand presented a comprehensive report on the station’s flagship “Morning Report” programme, on the plight of incorporated community sport organisations, under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022. You can hear Bridget’s report broadcast just before the 8.00am news on Tuesday last week, by clicking here.
("One size does not fit all" when it comes to ICSO regulation)
The programme also included an interview later that morning by Ingrid Hipkiss with Association Chairman, Gordon Noble-Campbell, which you can listen to by clicking here.
There is also a detailed on-line article, which also includes the perspective of Sport New Zealand’s Raelene Castle on the crown agency’s responsibilities in respect of community sport clubs and an update on the law reform process. You can read the article by clicking here.
On the following day, Radio New Zealand’s the “Panel” also featured a discussion on the impact of the new legislation and you can listen to that programme by clicking here.
TVNZ’s “Breakfast” Reveals Clubs' Lack Of Act Awareness ...
Following on from Radio New Zealand’s report the previous day, Television New Zealand interviewed Association Chairman Gordon Noble-Campbell as part of its prime-time “Breakfast” programme, just after the 7.00am news bulletin, on Wednesday morning.
(Sport clubs nationally are still unaware of the legislative change)
You can watch the TV segment (which has subsequently had over 15,000 YouTube views), and which includes an interview with the President of the Ohope Beach Football Club, Nicole Wismans, by clicking here.
It was sobering to note that local clubs had no awareness of the legislative change, with no communication from National Sport Organisations, or other national governance bodies. Television New Zealand’s on-line article can also be read here.
Sport Clubs Engagement With Schools : 2023 SMAANZ Conference ...
Last week, members of National Sport Club Survey team (Cindy Wiersma and Linden Moore) presented to the 2023 SMAANZ Conference hosted by the University of Canberra in Australia on the topic of “sport clubs engagement with schools”; a theme of the 2023 survey.
As described in an extract from the conference "book of abstracts" (which you can download here), “the inclusion of the school engagement component in this year’s survey examines how the interconnected nature of interorganisational relationships (IORs) affect the success or failure of sport organisations.”
The survey revealed that almost 80% of clubs that do not currently engage with schools see the value of doing so in the future. Of clubs that do, typically engagement takes the form of making club facilities available to the school and providing coaches. You can find out more about the 2023 survey (and past years' insights) by visiting www.nscs.org.nz.
Sport Manawatu Offers A Further Free Seminar ...
As evidenced by the above media reports, there is ongoing interest in the Association’s national seminar series on the implications of the Incorporated Societies Act 2022.
A further opportunity to learn about your organisation’s obligations under the new law will be held by ZOOM on Wednesday this coming week. If you would like to attend this seminar, please register via Sport Manawatu using the link noted below.
Fifth New Zealand Sikh Games An Outstanding Success ...
More than 50,000 spectators and competitors attended the fifth New Zealand Sikh Games and inaugural New Zealand Kabaddi World Cup in South Auckland, at Bruce Pullman Park on 25 and 26 November. The New Zealand Kabaddi Federation Inc. which was part of the group which organised the event, is an Association NSO member, with the Federation’s President Tirath Singh Atwal also an Association Board Member.
(Australia won the 2023 Kabaddi World Cup, competed for in Auckland)
Traditional Indian sports such as kabaddi and kho kho were a focus of the games, as well as a range of more recognisable sports such as weightlifting, football, hockey, basketball, netball, volleyball, badminton, cricket, tennis and athletics.
(A large crowd attended the 5th New Zealand Sikh Games)
The final of the 2023 Kabaddi World Cup was won by the Australian team which defeated the United States. Pakistan was third, while fourth place was awarded to the team representing New Zealand. You can read more about the games, by clicking here.
Should Sport Clubs Give Up Land For Housing? ...
In Australia, it’s been suggested that sport clubs sitting on prime real estate should be asked to consider if a pocket of their land could be used for housing. The idea is that new homes could be built on the fringes of sporting fields, giving struggling clubs, (who own their own playing fields) an injection of funds, while boosting the housing supply. A case study is provided in the Tarragindi Bowling Club in Brisbane, which has had land repurposed for retirement apartments, while preserving the sporting facility on-site, in an A$80 million re-development project.
(Brisbane's Tarragindi Bowling Club before the redevelopment project)
The repurposed “Tarragindi Bowls Club” is expected to re-open to the public before the end of the year and will feature a new, 10 rink championship quality, synthetic bowling green, along with a clubhouse and café, creating a win-win for the local community. You can listen to the ABC’s discussion of the project by clicking here.
(The "Tarrgindi Bowls Club" will share their renovated facility with a retirement village)
“Everything To Play For” (The QI Book Of Sports) ...
If you've ever wondered what David Attenborough has to do with yellow tennis balls, why Victorian doctors feared the outbreak of “bicycle face”; or what led ancient Egyptian athletes to have their spleens removed, the book “Everything to Play For” has the answer. This new book has been written by Anna Ptaszynski and James Harkin, both senior editors and scriptwriters for the popular BBC TV quiz show "QI" (“Quite Interesting”).
(Tennis balls were coloured yellow to support visibility of TV coverage in 1967)
Last week, Anna Ptaszynski joined Radio New Zealand’s “Sunday Morning” programme to provide an insight to some of sport’s weirdest rules, its most unlikely heroes, and a broad range of topics covering everything from pole-vaulting priests to professional pillow-fighting. You can listen to the interview, by clicking here.
From The Archives ...
NORTH OTAGO
OTAGO DAILY TIMES, ISSUE 20562, 10 NOVEMBER 1928, PAGE 10
A SPORTS CHAMPION
“The sporting bodies of Oamaru have a consistent champion in Cr. K. Familton. At the meeting of the Borough Council on Thursday evening, Cr. Familton successfully resisted a proposal to charge the Amateur Athletic Club a sum of £2 10s for the use of King George’s Park for training purposes. He pointed out that this club was an amateur one, without funds.
When a proposal to charge the cricket clubs £2 10s each for the use of the park was made by the Reserves Committee, Cr. Familton again protested, but without success. He stated that nearly the whole of the sporting bodies in the town wound up the season with a debit balance, and he could not see why they should be charged for the use of reserves which were the property of the people.”
Louis John Kemnitz Familton (known as “Kem”) was born on 21 February 1886, the son of John Deuchar (an Oamaru auctioneer) and Elizabeth Johanna Wilhemina (nee Kemnitz) Familton, the third eldest of their four sons.
(L J K Familton, Mayor of Oamaru from 1938 to 1941)
Kem Familton became noted as a junior tennis player when he was at Waitaki Boys’ High School. He was the school’s singles champion and he was also prominent in junior tournaments elsewhere. After he left school, Familton became singles and doubles champion of North Otago and when he shifted to Ashburton in 1954, he became the leading player there.
He was the first winner of the Canterbury Sub-Associations’ singles title when the country championships were instituted in 1938. And as the top seed for Mid Canterbury, he played a prominent part in that sub association’s many “Browning Shield” successes. (The Browning Shield was named after Reginald Browning in 1936, a former President of the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association and life member of the New Zealand Tennis Association).
An avid follower of all sports (he was also a better than average rugby union, table tennis and squash player), Kem always showed great enthusiasm for his tennis and travelled long distances to play. He was a hard hitter, especially on service with a quick coverage of the court and a bustling attitude to all his games. It was reported that “above all, he was a good opponent and a good sportsman.”
(Kam Familton, far right, with the members of the Otago interprovincial tennis team of 1927)
An auctioneer in his father’s business (J. D. Familton And Sons, Oamaru), he served in World War 1 as a member of the Otago Infantry and was wounded in action at Passchendaele in November 1917. Kem married Elizabeth Stephens Farra in 1921, with whom he raised a daughter (Patricia) and a son (Herbert). He was first elected to the Oamaru Borough Council in 1931, before becoming Mayor in 1938, a position he held until 1941.
Kem Familton died on 28 May 1957 and is buried in Oamaru’s Old Cemetery.
The Final Word ...
“If going to the right school in 2023 is the key to success in rugby in New Zealand, then the New Zealand Rugby Union and the rugby system has failed.”
(An on-line comment on the NZ Herald’s article, “How To Make Your Kid An All Black”)