Award boost for YMP Hockey Club on centenary weekend

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A national award is icing on the celebration cake for YMP Hockey Club as it marks its centenary this weekend.

The New Zealand Amateur Sport Association yesterday announced that YMP was the 2023 winner of the Te Tohu Tikitike o Matariki Award.

The award acknowledges a community sport organisation that has embraced te reo Māori as part of its kaupapa.

A judging panel convened by association patron Andy Leslie ONZM, in collaboration with the country’s first te reo Māori radionstation — Te Upoko o te Ika — decided the winner.

The award also recognises National Volunteer Week/Te Wiki Tūao-ā-Motu, with the winner reliant on volunteers to deliver competitive sport to its community.

“For over a century, community hockey in the Tairāwhiti region has played a key role in bringing people and cultures together for the love of the game,” said Mr Leslie, a former All Black captain, who went on to become president of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union.

“The YMP Hockey Club, closely associated with the rugby union club of the same name, has provided opportunities for both women and men to participate in an inclusive game which celebrates the values of sport and the importance of tikanga in sport, which is so important to the people of the region.”

NZ Amateur Sport Association chairman Gordon Noble-Campbell said severe weather events in Tairāwhiti had presented sports bodies with many challenges.

“The value of sport in providing people with an opportunity to connect with others despite these challenges is reflective of the values that YMP Hockey Club continues to promote to all of its participants and supporters.”

Te Upoko of te Ika general manager Adrian Tangaroa said community sport was an important way for te reo Māori to become more familiar to a larger number of people.

“This year’s winner demonstrated how this can become an integral part of our overall approach to building health communities through sport.”

YMP Hockey Club has its official centenary dinner at The Vines restaurant tonight. It will include the awarding of life memberships and honorary life memberships (for those who have passed on).