Sir Brian to speak at sports awards

Rugby great Sir Brian Lochore will be guest speaker at the 2006-07 Wairarapa sports awards at Copthorne Solway Park next Wednesday.
Sir Brian is currently part of the All Blacks selection panel and will base his address around their preparations for this year's World Cup for which they are firm favourites.
If the AB's are successful in France it will be only their second Word Cup title, the first coming at the inaugural tournament in 1987 when they were coached by Sir Brian.
It will be interesting to hear Sir Brian compare the lead-up for that tourney to that of this year, particularly in regards to the reconditioning programme which has seen 22 of the country's top players miss the opening half of the present Super 14 series.
Public voting for the 2006-07 Wairarapa sports awards officially closed today with huge numbers of votes being received for each of the five cateogries.
Last year's winner, national rally champion Richard Mason, is again in the running for the senior award, along with three others who have earned New Zealand honours in their respective sports over the past 12 months, kick boxer Bryce Baron, triathlete Jesse Bucknell and rugby's Joe Harwood. The junior award is always popular with voters and the finalists there are Henry Booth (equestrian), Stevie Paine (athletics), Katrina Simmonds (swimming) and Arnon Tapp (soccer). Four different sports are also involved in the battle for the administrative award ?.tennis though Ian Campbell, softball through Tony Nixon, rugby through Peter Russell and basketball through Andy Thackray. Competition will be keen too in the sports team section where the Dalefield women's hockey side is up against the Giants men's softball team, the Wairarapa-Bush rugby side and the Wairarapa under-15 boys hockey team. Introduced for the first time this year is a sports club of the year award which is based around the promotion of their sports, both on and off the field of play. In contention there are the Dalefield Hockey Club, the Giants Softball Club, Masterton Red Star JAB rugby and the Wairarapa Cricket Umpires Association.