AWARD TO OTAGO CRICKETER

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26129, 3 June 1950, Page 2

AWARD TO OTAGO CRICKETER

B. SUTCLIFFE “ SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR”

(New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, June 2.

The “New Zealand Sportsman’s” trophy for the “Sportsman of the Year” was presented to Bert Sutcliffe, the Otago and New Zealand representative cricketer this evening, at a function which was attended by one of the most representative gatherings of sportsmen held in Dunedin for many years.

Mr J. F. Fairbairn, editor of the “New Zealand Sportsman,” the Mayor of Dunedin (Sir Donald Cameron), the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr W. A. Bodkin), the president of the Otago Council of Sport (Mr C. J. L. White), the president of the New Zealand Cricket Council (Mr D. A. Solomon), the president of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association (Mr J. W. Hallen) and representatives of practically every sporting organisation in Dunedin were present. Making the presentation of the handsome trophy, Mr Bodkin said that «n days to come the “New Zealand Sportsman’s” trophy would be the most contested trophy in the Dominion. The journal had a very fine conception of things when it called upon a panel of 16 sports editors from Auckland to Invercargill to make the award, and they were unquestionably the right persons to decide who should be regarded as the outstanding sportsman jf the Dominion. The decision had been almost unanimous.

Mr Bodkin said that by his performances. Sutcliffe had made for himself a very definite place in the history of the Dominion. It was given to only a few men to establish a Dominion record and Sutcliffe had broken not one. but many, records. “I feel very proud indeed to be selected as the sportsman of the year,” said Sutcliffe, in the course of a characteristically modest speech. He added that to succeed in sport one had *o have a certain measure of luck. He

expressed the hope that the trophy would go the rounds of .the various sports.