Issue 79 : 18 April 2021
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.
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.
Belfast Netball Club Issues Urgent Plea ...
The Belfast Netball Club in Christchurch needs urgent repairs to its club courts. The Club is appealing to the Council to prioritise the immediate renewal of the netball courts at Sheldon Park and the repair of the toilet block. The courts are in terrible state and in dire need of renewal, while the toilet block was damaged in the earthquakes and “is frankly, in a disgusting state”.
The junior teams at the Club, Belfast School, Belfast Kids First Kindergarten and other community and sporting groups use the courts, however the senior teams (under 17 and up) no longer use them due to the high risk of injury. Instead, the Club pays each year to hire courts for senior teams to train on. This is a large financial burden on a club run entirely by volunteers.
Belfast Netball Club is a large community based club, run by a small, dedicated committee. It has approximately 250 registered players in 2021 and grows the social capital of the local community. As many sport organisations require an injection of financial capital to repair or improve necessary infrastructure to deliver sport to their local communities, is national funding for sport reaching clubs at the grassroots, where its needed most?
Ngati Porou East Coasts Stands-Up For Match Officials ...
Round 3 of Ngati Porou East Coast’s club rugby competition for the Kath McLean Memorial Cup was cancelled by the governing body last weekend, following “a couple of very serious incidents” in the previous week’s fixtures. CEO of the Provincial Union, Cushla Tangaere-Manuel stated that referee abuse and poor side-line behaviour were the main causes of the cancellation.
There are seven teams competing in the 2021 East Coast RFU club competition, Tihirau Victory (TVC), Uawa Sports, Ruatoria City Sports, Tokararangi, Hikurangi Sports, Hicks Bay and Tokomaru Bay United. With the Union celebrating it’s centenary year in 2021, Tangaere-Manuel said of the referees responsible for officiating competition fixtures, “they are qualified to be in the position they are in. Whether or not we like their calls, half the crowd will like them, half not. But it's not acceptable to abuse them to the point of threatening violence.”
(Cushla Tangaere-Manuel has taken a tough stance against poor spectator behaviour)
Ngati Porou East Coast Rugby is a member of this Association, which applauds the tough stance taken to reinforce support for volunteers and good sportsmanship by spectators. In October, Ngati Porou East Coast Rugby will host the 49th annual Under 16 tournament for the Don Broughton Shield, 50 years following the first tournament in 1972, which features teams from all of the eight Provincial Unions comprising the Hurricanes region.
(Ruatoria’s Whakarua Park will be the host venue for the Hurricanes Under 16 Tournament)
“Fields In Trust” Loses Its Trusted President ...
The need to preserve public spaces for public sport and recreation was a cause close to the heart of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh who died last week, aged 99. The President of the National Playing Fields Association for 64 years from 1948 to 2013, Philip was heavily involved in fundraising for the organisation, playing in multiple cricket matches for the charity, famously in 1949 leading a team of celebrities against the England test team in Bournemouth.
The Association was founded in 1925 with the aims of securing adequate playing fields for the present and future needs of all sectors of the community, to save existing sports grounds threatened with extinction, and to co-operate with all Local Authorities and others who are striving to secure these objects. In 2008 the Association’s Trustees took the decision to change the operating name of the National Playing Fields Association to “Fields in Trust”.
(In 1949, Prince Philip also led a victorious “English Invitation XI” against Hampshire)
Over Prince Philip’s 64 year tenure as President, the number of green spaces protected by “Fields in Trust” grew from 430 to 2,000, spanning an area of nearly 12,000 hectares.
173 Community Sport Organisations Dissolved On 8 April ...
48 hours following the First Reading of the Incorporated Societies Bill in Parliament, 173 community sport organisations were dissolved on Thursday, 8 April, (half of all incorporated societies dissolved by the Registrar on that date). One dissolved sport organisation contacted by the Association noted that they were “flabbergasted” by the news, noting that the dissolution occurred “without any correspondence or notification.”
It appears that the moratorium provided by the Registrar on not furnishing an Annual Return owing to the impacts of COVID is the cause of the mass-dissolution, which the Association believes (based on its research) is the largest in the history of the 1908 Act. It seems that the moratorium provided a waiver but not an exemption from filing an Annual Return, which is required under the regulations. It appears many sport entities have been caught-out as a result.
Meanwhile, the Bill has been referred to the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Select Committee, with submissions due by 28 May 2021. The Association will be preparing a submission to the Select Committee on behalf of all involved or associated with incorporated amateur sport clubs in New Zealand.
Tennis Aims For “Modernisation” ...
Julie Paterson, the CEO of Tennis New Zealand has announced a plan, in consultation with the six national tennis regions, to modernise tennis in New Zealand and ultimately make it more accessible for all New Zealanders. Paterson says that many of Tennis New Zealand’s systems and platforms are no longer fit for purpose with a need to stream-line the way the organisation operates nationally and locally, by embracing technology with new systems and frameworks.
The plan intends to roll out a robust set of Nationally Shared Initiatives to grow and improve tennis in New Zealand. Included in the new initiatives are a new Participant Protection Policy which includes the launch of a vetting service for anyone within the tennis system that has regular contact with children, creating a national register of tennis players, creating clarity on national and local roles and responsibilities, and in the way fees are charged and collected.
Its also intended to refresh the constitutional framework of Tennis New Zealand to reflect a new operating model and membership structure. Phase two of the plan calls for each local area in New Zealand to review its own infrastructure, including the number and mix of courts, lighting, weather-proof covering and club-house facilities.
New Zealand’s first Lawn Tennis Association was formed in Wellington in 1883. At that time, it was reported that there were three clubs in Wellington numbering 195 members. The New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association came into being three years later, in 1886.
United States Study Indicates Fewer Playing Organised Grassroots Sport ...
The National Sports & Society Survey (NSASS) undertaken by the Ohio State University in 2019, has revealed that fewer children today participate in organised grassroots sports, compared to their parents. When asked if they ever played a formally organised sport as a youth, nearly two-thirds of adult survey respondents confirmed they did, while less than half of child survey respondents agreed.
The causes of this change are worthy of consideration particularly when noting that of the more than one-third (37%) who said they dropped out of playing organised sport as a child, 75% said they never resumed playing organised sport again.
The survey results present a grim picture for organised community sport in the United States, with the inference that once a connection with a club is lost, it is seldom regained. The corollary is that children today are unlikely to join community sport clubs if their parents are no longer involved in clubs themselves. It would be interesting to ask the same questions of parents and their children in New Zealand, and other parts of the world which have a long tradition of organised sport delivery through community clubs.
(Fewer children are participating in organised team sport, compared to their parent’s generation)
Annual General Meeting, 27 April 2021 ...
A reminder that the fifth Annual General Meeting of the Association will be held on Tuesday 27 April, 2021 at 5.30pm, at the Wellesley Boutique Hotel, Maginnity Street in Wellington.
The Association was formed in 2017, to work collaboratively with all sporting codes in promoting, fostering, advancing and encouraging the core values of organised amateur sport, with the goal of ensuring there are opportunities, incentives and recognition for all participants, (whether players, coaches, or administrators), which are aligned to their distinctive status as amateurs.
You can download a copy of the Agenda for the Annual General Meeting, by clicking here.
From The Archives ...
SCHADICK FAILS TO CATCH THE SELECTORS' EYE
EVENING POST, VOLUME CVII, ISSUE 120, 2 JUNE 1924, PAGE 4
“Surprise has been expressed that Schadick, described as the Morkel of Now Zealand football, did not get a place in the inter-island match, as he was singled out by the Wellington Press for exceptionally good play and worthy of consideration for the All Black team. Schadick is only 26 years of age, is a particularly good man on line-out work, and in dribbling rushes and gives a good weight in the scrum. He has numerous goals to his credit from half-way.”
To be compared to South African rugby football player Dougie Morkel in 1924, was "saying something"! Like Morkel, Schadick was a prolific point-scorer with the boot for Buller and the West Coast. He was, based on his form and quality of play, considered a shoe-in for selection to what became known as “the Invincible” All Black team of 1924.
Campbell Frederick William Ferdinand Schadick was born on 29 October 1897, the son of Julius Frederick William Henry (Jules) and Mary Alice Schadick (nee Campbell). Julius was a civil engineer from Berlin who emigrated to New Zealand in the 1860’s, while Mary emigrated to New Zealand from Dublin. Campbell lived with his parents and four sisters at the family home in Peel Street in Westport. He completed his education at Nelson College and in 1916 passed the Public Service Entrance Examination.
(The Nelson College 1XV of 1914, with Campbell Schadick, circled)
In November of the following year he was selected on the ballot to enlist, joining the the 36th reinforcements in February 1918. While stationed at the Featherston Camp, he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in the 48th New Zealand Field Artillery, but he did not see active service before the armistice later that year. Completing his tertiary qualifications following the Great War, in 1920 he was appointed Buller County Engineer ahead of 16 applicants.
(The Buller County Council of 1926, with Campbell Schadick, circled)
A keen sportsman, Schadick played rugby football for the White Star Club in Westport, representing Buller in the Seddon Shield as a lock forward from 1919 to 1924, when he unsuccessfully trialled for the All Blacks. In the same period, he competed in the New Zealand Tennis Championships in 1922 and 1923, representing the Westport Tennis Club. In 1927 he married Florence May Power and turned his sport attention to golf, becoming the Westport Golf Club Men’s Champion in 1931 and the Club Captain of the Buller Golf Club in 1933. In 1938, he was one of the “first sixteen” chosen by the The Minister of Internal Affairs to join the first National Council of Physical Welfare and Recreation, eventually “catching the selector’s eye”. He died on 29 December 1976 and is buried in the Orowaiti cemetery in Westport.
The Final Word ...
“In the Duke of Edinburgh, British sport has lost one of its strongest and, on occasion, boldest advocate. He had an unflinching view of the role of sport in all our neighbourhoods. That belief will be missed.”
(Sebastian Newbold Coe, Baron Coe, CH, KBE)