Bowled over by supreme award success

Winning Sportsperson of the Year was the icing on the cake for an already "unbelievable year" for  Hakaru bowler Sue Wightman.
Wightman was awestruck when called on stage at the ASB Leisure Centre in Whangarei to receive her third    award at the 2009 Konica Minolta Northland Sports Awards, on Saturday.
Having already received the code award for bowls and Sportswoman of the Year earlier, Wightman made her way through the crowd of onlookers who were out of their seats giving the humble and quiet achiever a standing ovation.
"This is absolutely a surprise. I know what I've achieved but there are so many talented people out there," she said after Sport Northland Kaumatua Hohepa Rudolph had blessed her carved trophy.
Earlier this year Wightman won the Hyundai National Woman's Open Championship which  involved her  travelling to Scotland, where she placed fifth in the World Bowls Women's Champ of Champs singles.
"It has been an unbelievable year - to go to nationals and to win - having never even qualified before that ... and then to go on to play in Scotland without any experience ..." She paused mid-sentence, lost for words.
"The opportunity to represent New Zealand and wear the New Zealand uniform and hear your name being called out - it was all quite surreal - and all of this is just capping off a wonderful year," she continued.
Along with the national title, Wightman was the winner and skip of the Hakaru Championship in singles, triples and fours as well as the runner-up in the Northland Champ of Champs singles and fours. She also won the triples and was runner-up in the Northland Centre fours, and was a member of the Northland women's open team that placed second at the national finals.
Before she left to celebrate with the many bowls fans at the dinner, Wightman said she would be back on the greens to defend her title at the 2010 nationals in January.
It was fitting a bowler won the overall award on a night where Northland's most famous bowler, Audrey Russell, who won the New Zealand women's bowling singles in 1962 and 1964 among her many achievements, was one of three inducted into the Sport Northland Hall of Fame on Saturday.
Russell passed away in 1992, but her daughter, Jude Ganley, spoke on her behalf.  However, the next legend, Grant McLeod, was present to be inducted, for his continuing passion and feats for hockey.
The Northland stalwart and now chief executive of Northland Hockey, represented New Zealand at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, aged 25, followed by the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, still at the top of his game eight years on.
The third inductee was table tennis legend and double national champion James Morris. Morris has also been an outstanding coach and administrator at the local and national level.
He has recently accepted a position on the Oceania Table Tennis Federation as a representative on the International Table Tennis Federation.
While Wightman was an obvious choice for the Sportswoman of the Year, the Sportsman of the Year, Blair Tuke, was a something of a surprise.
Tuke began the night collecting a code award for yachting, and then the junior sportsperson of the year title before going on to be named as the overall male sportsperson of the year.
Perhaps the more obvious recipient would have been another Blair - the Far North's Adam Blair, who was an influential member of the Kiwis 2008 Rugby League World Cup victory and also helped the Melbourne Storm to win the 2009 NRL premiership.
But it was the sport of sailing and Tuke's time to shine, as his outstanding national and international results this year were recognised.
Tuke won a silver medal at the ISAF Youth Teams Racing World Championship in Perth, Western Australia, and together with Peter Burling won gold at the Silver Fleet Worlds 49er Championship.
He added another gold medal to his haul, winning the World 29er Championship at Lake Garda, Italy.