Ben's big night

It was a case of luck taking a turn for the better when talented Masterton golfer Ben Campbell was the big winner at last night's 2008-09 Wairarapa sports awards. Gary Caffell reports on the big awards that were handed out at last night's function.
It was double success being celebrated last night for young golfer Ben Campbell
Campbell, 17, won the First Mobile Senior Sports Personality of the Year trophy for the second successive year before being announced as the recipient of the Wairarapa Times-Age supreme award, for which the finalists were the winners of all five of the award categories.
His success came just a few days after it was confirmed that a wrist injury which caused
Campbell to withdraw from making his debut for the New Zealand senior men's golf team in the Southern Cross tournament against Argentina, Australia and South Africa earlier this month would sideline him for up to six weeks
The injury surfaced when Campbell struck a root while playing out of long grass during first round play at the North Island stroke play championships at Auckland's Murawai course with a medical assessment showing he had torn tendons in the wrist area of his right hand.
It could hardly have come at a worse time for not only did it mean him pulling out of the Southern Cross tourney but also missing the national amateur stroke and match play championships which followed.. And, what's more, a planned trip to contest some of the leading amateur tourneys in the United States in June had to be delayed by about one month.
For Campbell, whose last 12 months has been highlighted by a massive 12-stroke win in the Aaron Baddeley junior international tournament in China and an unbeaten run in singles play for the New Zealand junior men's team in their annual trans-Tasman clash with Australia, the injury was an "absolute bummer" but, typically, the laid back Wairarapa College student is not dwelling on it.
"Injuries happen in all sports and moaning about them doesn't get you anywhere," he said. "Sure it's frustrating but that's life, you have to take the good with the bad."
Campbell is now hoping to be back to full fitness in time to contest the United States junior (under-18yrs) amateur stroke championships to be held at the Torrey Pines course in San Diego in early July. He agrees it would be a big ask to contest such a prestigious event with only limited preparation but, again typically, he is taking a positive stance on his chances."The rest should do me good, at least I'll be fresh and ready to go," he quipped.
Opposing Campbell for the Senior Sports Personality of the Year award last night were national ultra-marathon champion Graeme Butcher, national junior barefoot water skiing champion Sarah Linton and national junior swimming representative Neil Van Wijk.
Sade Atkinson, a member of the Central regional tennis squad which won the gold medal in the team's event at the national under-12 championships, was named Waipoua Lions Junior Sports Personality of the Year.
Atkinson already has a host of inter-provincial singles and doubles age group titles to her credit and despite her young age was part of the Wairarapa senior representative team last season.She is the current Wairarapa Maori Junior Sportswoman of the Year
Other finalists for the junior award were swimmers Bella Biggs and Sophie Foote and athlete Holly Travers.
The Copthorne Hotel and Resort Solway Park Sports Administrator of the Year award went to Mark Harris, manager of the New Zealand team which competed at the Youth Commonwealth Games track and field championships in Pune, India last October. He will also manage the New Zealand team at the world youth track and field championships in Italy in July
Harris is very active too on the coaching front with most of the province's top performers on the track currently being under his guidance.
Allan Clarke (softball), Phil Keinzley (soccer) and Garry Smith (jet sprint racing) were also in the reckoning for the administrative award.
The 2008 soccer season saw two notable "firsts" for the Wairarapa United men's soccer team, who were named Cross Country Rentals Sports Team of the Year. They won the Capital premier division inter-club title and the promotion-relegation series which earned them entry into the highest-ranked competition available to them, the central league, this year.
The other three finalists for the team award were the Eketahuna women's rugby team, the Giants premier men's softball team and the Wairarapa under-18 boys hockey team.
Four organisations who have given tremendous service to Wairarapa sport over a long number of years-Athletics Masterton,
Carterton Netball Club, Dalefield Hockey Club and Lansdowne Cricket Club- battled it out for the Ziggys Masterton Glass Sports Club of the Year award.
Honours went to the Dalefield Hockey Club who are in their centenary year.
They started with just a couple of men's teams but have grown to the point where they are now strongly involved in local senior and junior competitions for both sexes. And, of course, their premier men's and women's teams compete at the very top level in Wellington.
A highlight of last night's function at Solway Park Hotel was the appearance of arguably New Zealand's most famous sporting trophy, rugby's Ranfurly Shield, which will be on the line when holders Wellington play Wairarapa-Bush at Memorial Park in Masterton on Thursday, July 2.
A man who has blown the whistle in many Shield matches-including that between Canterbury and Auckland in 1985 which is often referred to as perhaps the most exciting ever-former Masterton Mayor Bob Francis, and WRFU communications manager Sam Rossister-Stead spoke briefly on the aura of the "log o' wood" which, incidentally, has never been won by Wairarapa-Bush since the amalgamation of the two unions in 1971.
Wairarapa have, however, held the Shield three times on their own account, in 1927, 1928 and 1950.