This award recognises Wellington Icons of Sport who have made an outstanding contribution as an athlete. The 2010 inductees are:
Waimarama Taumaunu (1962- )
“Wai”, as she is
universally known, was only in her mid-teens when she entered representative
netball and by 1981, she was in the national team. Through the 80s, she formed an accomplished
defence pairing with goal keep Tracy Fear, a combination that greatly
contributed to New Zealand’s
world championship win in 1987. Captain
from 1989 to 1991, Wai was physically imposing on the court and had instinctive
flair combined with a great appreciation of strategy. Her final international was in what was
regarded as one of the best international netball matches, a one-goal loss to Australia
in the 1991 world championship final. Wai is still strongly involved in netball
in the Wellington Region at club level with PIC and nationally as the Technical
Advisor for the ANZ Haier Pulse franchise and Silver Ferns Assistant Coach.
Wynton Rufer (1962-
)
When the great
football players of New
Zealand are being discussed, one name
unanimously is thrust to the fore. Wynton
Rufer burst on the national consciousness when the national team, the All
Whites, qualified for the World Cup finals in 1982 and it wasn’t long before he
was recognised internationally as well. He
played for clubs in Switzerland
before he moved to Werder Bremen
in the Bundesliga in 1989. There, he
became a household name, one of the celebrated superstars of European soccer. In his six years with Werder Bremen,
there was league and cup success and he scored one of the goals in Werder’s 2-0
defeat of Monaco
in the 1992 European Cup Winners’ Cup final. He also played in Japan, returned for another winner’s medal with Kaiserslautern in Germany
before returning to New
Zealand. He was player-coach of New Zealand’s
first professional team. He was voted Oceania Player of the Year three times
and was named Oceania Footballer of the Century. He is a Fifa ambassador,
serves on two Fifa committees and is personal advisor to the president of the Oceania confederation.
Stewie Dempster
(1903 - 1974)
To look for the quality of Stewie Dempster
as a test batsman, it’s only necessary to look at the all time best averages.
At the top is D G Bradman with his unmatchable 99.94 and next comes C S
Dempster with 65.72. It may be said that
it is an inflated average because he played only 10 tests, but who’s to say the
consistency Dempster displayed in those tests could not have been carried on?
Dempster without question was one of the best batsman to come from New Zealand
and at his best, was among the finest in the world. He scored 2165 runs on the
1927 tour of England
and in the match against Warwickshire, he hit one bowler for five fours in an
over. In the first series in New Zealand,
against England in 1929-30,
he scored 136 in Wellington in the second test
to become the first centurion for New Zealand
and he and Jack Mills put on an opening stand of 276, which remains a record
against England.
Dempster’s dominance continued on the 1931 tour of England,
during which he scored his highest first-class score, 212 against Essex. Dempster later returned to England and played for Warwickshire and
Leicestershire, for the Gentlemen against the Players, and also for Scotland.
Previous inductees of this prestigious award are:
2009 Ewen Chatfield
Arthur Donald Duncan
Meda McKenzie
2008
Ted Morgan - Boxing
Ross Collinge - Rowing
Trevor Manning - Hockey Alan McIntyre - Hockey
2007
Ron Jarden - Rugby
Jack Tynan - Hockey
Andy Leslie - Rugby
2006
Bill Massey - Softball
Harry Kent - Cycling
2005
Eric Tindill - Rugby/Cricket
Billy Wallace - Rugby
Dick Joyce - Rowing
Marilyn Marshall - Softball/Soccer
