Issue 146 : 11 February 2024
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.
47 CSOs Dissolved On 1 February 2024 ...
41% of the 114 incorporated societies dissolved by the Registrar of Incorporated Societies on 1 February 2024, were community sport organisations (CSOs). Dissolution means that the Registrar "is satisfied that these societies are no longer carrying on their operations".
(27 different sports comprise the most recent wave of CSO dissolutions)
Rugby union, rugby league and golf clubs were the top 3 codes dissolved (by number of clubs). In total, this month’s dissolutions affected 27 different sports including darts, football, gliding, skiing, softball, squash, tramping, weightlifting and yachting.
Age Is No Barrier To Lawn Bowls Champion ...
At the age of 84, Nic Sloan from the Waikiwi Bowling Club Inc. in Invercargill won his first ever Southland lawn bowls championship earlier this year, as a member of the club’s "Men’s Fours" team. Waikiwi defeated Waihopai in the championship final, with the result undecided until the final bowl of the match had been rolled. A late call-up for the team, it’s thought that Sloan is likely to be the region’s oldest first-time title winner, 13 years after first taking up the sport, proving that "age is no barrier to sporting achievement".
(Nic Sloan, 84, Southland Bowls Champion)
Nic's title is an inspiration for older New Zealanders. As a 2020 study published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science notes, “competition as a source for motivation for sport participation by older age groups might be underestimated. Despite older people not being able to compete in sports in the same way they did when younger, the desire to challenge their own limits and abilities, set goals and achieve them, and be successful in their chosen sport at an appropriate level are key drivers of sport participation. This is in contrast to the stereotypical view of older people, who are often negatively perceived as slowing down, no longer being physically able, and not being driven or motivated to succeed.”
(Older people are often negatively perceived as not being driven or motivated to succeed)
You can read the full study from the Shanghai University of Sport, here.
“Collaborative Voices” On Access Radio ...
Following the joint communique released by this Association and Community Networks Aotearoa (CNA) on 26 January 2024, Association Chairman Gordon Noble-Campbell was recently interviewed by CNA Executive Officer Ros Rice, on the national Access Radio network.
The monthly programme "Collaborative Voices", which profiles community organisations and their people in a way that actively demonstrates how organisations are working, is replayed by Access Radio stations throughout the country. You can listen to the programme, here.
“More Rugged Than Posh” – Wanstead Polo Club Inc. ...
Earlier this weekend, Radio New Zealand’s “Country Life” broadcast an entertaining and informative article on Waipukurau’s “Wanstead Polo Club”, first incorporated over 60 years ago, in 1963. According to the National Sport Club Survey database, there are around 22 polo clubs in New Zealand, with the Wanstead club reported to be the second largest by membership.
(Hawkes Bay has been a New Zealand centre for polo for well over a century)
Wanstead is located around 20 kilometres south-east of Waipukurau, with the club funded through a diverse combination of member subscriptions, club-house income and livestock sales. The township of Wanstead dates back to the 1870’s, with records of polo being played in the area dating back to the first decade of the 1900’s. In the 1930’s there were seven clubs in Hawkes Bay, with three clubs still in existence in the present day.
(Today, the Wanstead club is the second largest polo club in New Zealand)
You can read the full story (or listen to the audio), by clicking here.
“BASIS” Aims To Support Amateur Sport ...
The British Association for Sustainable Sport (or “BASIS”) was formed in 2011 by Dr Russell Seymour with the objective of being “the sustainability hub” for the U.K. sports industry. The organisation is a not-for-profit entity which is committed to delivering a positive impact for sport at every level and harnessing the power of sport to make a difference for all.
(BASIS aims to be a "sustainability hub" for sport in the U.K.)
To provide a framework against which sustainability performance can be managed and assessed, BASIS uses twelve principles which are categorised into the three related pillars of environmental responsibility, social progress and economic activity. You can learn more about the organisation and its aspirations for sport, here.
College, Or Club? – (Or Both?) ...
A December 2023 decision by the Nelson Bays sub union council of rugby union club delegates, to “exclude” local school teams from the Tasman Rugby Union's under 14 and under 15 competitions for the 2024 season, was received with dismay by Nelson College.
(Nelson College was initially barred from entering U14 and U15 teams)
At the time, Nelson College indicated that it may choose to incorporate as a rugby club in order to field teams from the school in the local teenage club competition. However last week, the Nelson Bays sub union announced that (following further consultation), for the first eight weeks of the 2024 season, from April 6 to May 25 (including holidays), there will be a club competition where only club sides can enter teams. Following on from the club competition, there will then be a schools competition which will run from June 8 to August 10.
("College or Club?", is a strategic question for teenage rugby union)
The initial stand-off and subsequent compromise solution are symptomatic of a larger ongoing battle between some Provincial Unions and high schools, which each claiming to have the principal social mandate and development strategy to provide a rugby experience for teenagers during their high school years. You can read more here.
From The Archives ...
PERSONAL ITEMS
WAIRARAPA DAILY TIMES, VOLUME 47, ISSUE 14372, 13 APRIL 1921, PAGE 4
“Northern files record the death of Mr W. Tierney, who was formerly well known in sporting circles. The deceased, a single man, was accidentally killed at Messrs Harkness and Lunon’s sawmill at Arero, 12 miles from Tokomaru Bay, through being struck on the chest by a log being thrown back from the saw.
Mr Tierney, who was born in Thames, and for some years followed the occupation of a carpenter, was well known to sportsmen, being one of the best bicycle riders New Zealand has produced. He represented New Zealand at international sports in England and Paris. His record for one mile still remains unbroken. Deceased was also known to old footballers.”
William (“Bill”) Tierney was born at his family home on Tararu Road in Thames in 1873, the eldest son (and one of the ten children) of Christopher (a miner) and Mary Ann Tierney. William’s parents emigrated to New Zealand from Glasgow around 1863, aboard the Resolute.
Tierney initially made his sporting name as a footballer (as a fullback) and cricketer (as a batsman), representing the Thames district for the City North and Tararu clubs respectively, going on to play for Thames in various rugby union interprovincial matches in 1894 and 1895. He was also a member of the Hauraki Rowing Club.
(The first wave of cycling popularity in New Zealand was over 120 years ago)
In 1897, as a member of the Thames Amateur Athletic and Cycling Club, he won the five-mile event at the New Zealand Natives’ Association Carnival in Thames. The following year he was invited to compete in three Auckland championship events and he became a member of the Auckland Cycling Club, going on to win the first of nine Auckland provincial championships. Three years later, (when there were estimated to be 40,000 New Zealanders who were members of cycling clubs throughout the country), Tierney won the New Zealand half-mile championship, in a record time of 1 min, 5 secs, (a record unbroken at the time of his death).
in 1900, Bill was selected as one of three representatives by the New Zealand League of Wheelmen to compete for the World’s Championship at the Paris Exhibition in August.
(The starting line Auckland's two-mile championship in March 1900, won by Tierney)
Having left New Zealand in May 1900, on arrival in England the cyclists learned that they were unable to compete owing to a dispute between the Paris authorities and England’s National Cyclists’ Union (of which New Zealand was a member). Nonetheless, Tierney stayed in Europe and competed in the North of England. On his return journey to New Zealand in September 1900, he won a two-mile handicap race in New York.
("Bill" Tierney, "Teddy" Reynolds and Sam Draffin, New Zealand representatives)
Bill returned from overseas in 1901 and the following year was reported to be racing in Australia in Singletown. In 1904, he was employed as a building contract foreman in Auckland before moving to Tauranga in 1906. He was appointed foreman of the ferro-concrete works for the Piako County Council in 1911, (ahead of 19 other aspirants). How William Tierney ended up working in a rural sawmill in isolated Arero is a mystery, however he died intestate at the age of 46 on 19 February 1921 and he is buried in Block B, Plot 27, of Tokomaru Bay’s cemetery.
The Final Word …
"To me, competing was all that mattered."
("Eddie the Eagle" - aka Michael Edwards)
