Sportsman Of Year Award Is Unrealistic

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31206, 2 November 1966, Page 15

Sportsman Of Year Award Is Unrealistic

'THE New Zealand Sports--1 man of the year award will lose most of its significance if there are any more results similar to the outcome of the 1966 poll. In a year in which New Zealand confirmed its world supremacy in its national game, Rugby, not one All Black attracted enough votes to gain a place in the first six. The result, therefore, was unreal and unsatisfactory. In the test series against the Lions last winter C. E. Meads won widespread acclaim for his tremendous play. In spite of the large number of people voting, Meads was not considered of sufficient stature to win even 33 votes, the number gained by the sixth sportsman. When he plays in Britain, France, South Africa and Australia, Meads is hailed as a great champion. It seems he is destined to be without honour in his own country: another prophet? Athletics commanded four of the leading positions—including the first three—and the top six were all members of the New Zealand Commonwealth Games team in Jamaica. This suggests that B. W. Sinclair’s classic century against England in March

was too distant in the memory to earn its proper reward and that B. Briggs's outstanding effort in winning the world speedway title for the fourth time came too late and was achieved too far away to be appreciated properly.

The conditions of voting have often given cause for dissatisfaction. Now it would seem that the number of voters is the reason behind the unreal result A total of 52 persons or organisations receive voting papers and each allocates from six points to one, in decreasing order, to its choices as the leading six sportsmen.

This means that from a pool of 1092 points, Meads could not obtain three per cent, the amount gained by the sixth placed competitor, L. R. Mills. It means, too, that with the leading six gaining a total of 506 points, the remaining 586 points were spread among a minimum of 18 other sportsmen —and probably the number was far greater. This is the direct result of the spread voting system adopted for the award. The organizers would be well advised to disfranchise the present horde of voting prganizations and appoint a small group of people who

could be relied upon to produce a realistic result A small panel of impartial people intimately connected with sport could, in their deliberations, consider the sportsmanship of candidates for the award—one of the original ideals of the contest. This could clarify the issue in a year in which there was little to choose between the attainments of the leading competitors. This year, for instance, Mrs V. I. Young would have earned bonus marks for modesty and consistency of performance; D. O. Oliver's genuine enthusiasm for taking part in competition—whether winning or losing—would have been rewarded, as would the delightful manner in which D. F. Gerrard combines a puckish sense of humour and a sense of responsibility to sport. These attributes gave a fuller meaning to their gold medal winning efforts at Kingston. The Murray Halberg Trust for Crippled Children—which benefits from the Sportsman of the Year Dinner—is an organisation whose aims cannot be praised too highly. It would be a pity if it was to lose ground through the tarnishing of the “Sportman” image.