GAMES OFFICIALS LEARNT THE JOB

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32383, 24 August 1970, Page 1

GAMES OFFICIALS LEARNT THE JOB

Three men who will shoulder a great deal of the responsibility for running the 1974 Commonwealth Games returned to Christchurch from Edinburgh yesterday. They are Messrs H. C. Blazey, M. F. Hunter and N. B. Ullrich.

Mr Blazey has been convener of the sports committee of Commonwealth Games Promotion (New Zealand) and if he continues in this role in the organising body, as is likely, his share of the burden will be as great, if not greater, than that carried by any one man. During the Edinburgh games Mr Blazey made exhaustive studies of the administration of each of the nine sports on the 1974 programme, and he has gathered a great deal of documentation to complement the knowledge he has gleaned. Mr Blazey said the sports organisation at Edinburgh had gone like clockwork, but he

was confident that New Zealand had the people to run the 1974 games just as efficiently. Since the games Mr Blazey, and also Mr Hunter and Mr Ullrich, have visited a number of countries investigating different brands of equipment that will have to be bought. “We have spoken to a lot of people and we now have a pretty good idea of what we will need,” said Mr Blazey. He would recommend the purchase of a tartan track in preference to the two possible alternatives—the “fast” track which is similar to tartan but with a different base, and the “rubkor” track, which is more asphalt-like than tartan. From whom the track would be bought would have to be discussed by the organ-

ising body after it had considered all the data he had gathered, said Mr Blazey. The same applied to the other major purchases, the scoreboards, and the electronic timing equipment In the light of what he had seen he had no fears that Christchurch’s facilities would be found wanting, said Mr Blazey. If the Centennial Pool was roofed and extended so that the diving well was separate it would be more than adequate for swimming. Mr Blazey is a former president of the New Zealand Rugby Union. For him personally the most satisfying aspect of Christchurch’s successful application at . Edinburgh was that, for the time being at least, the black versus white issue was dead. “The moderates were in control and we got the games with no tags attached and no promises extracted. This is a great thing for sport.” FINANCE INTEREST Mr Hunter, whose particular interest has been finance, said that although in many ways Edinburgh’s financial circumstances could not be applied to Christchurch, much had been learnt on the subject Some of the travel weariness dropped from Mr Hunter’s face when he was told of the extent of financial support already given, specially the Government offer of $19,000 and the announcement last week that a Christchurch businessman was prepared to contribute $lO,OOO. Mr Hunter, along with Mr E. H. Williams, who returned home two weeks ago, also studied methods of fund-raising and requirements for officials and teams. Mr Ullrich, the general secretary of Commonwealth Games Promotion, kept an eye on many facets of games organisation, particularly stadium control and communications. He, too, said that a tremendous amount of knowledge had been gained.