Votes flood in for awards

There has been a veritable flood of public votes for the 2009 Wairarapa sports awards, the winners of which will be announced at a special function to be held at Copthorne Hotel and Resort Solway Park in Masterton tomorrow night.
Literally hundreds and hundreds of the voting forms which have been published by major sponsors, the Wairarapa Times-Age, on a regular basis over the past month were counted yesterday.
Those votes will play a big part in deciding the five category winners who then become the finalists for the supreme award won last year by Giants men's softball coach Tony Nixon.
Battling it out for the First Mobile Senior Sports Personality of the Year trophy are ultra-marathoner Graeme Butcher, golfer Ben Campbell, barefoot water skier Sarah Linton and swimmer Neil Van Wijk.
Just making it to the final has been a triumph in itself for this quartet as of the record 24 nominations for this category all but three had competed successfully at international or national level (or both) over the past 12 months.
Hugely talented athlete Stevie Paine has made the Waipoua Lions Junior Sports Personality of the Year award her own over recent times but now she is attending secondary school she was not eligible this year and the door is open for a new name to be engraved on that cup.
Finalists are Sade Atkinson (tennis), Bella Biggs (swimming), Sophie Foote (swimming) and Holly Travers (athletics).
The Copthorne Hotel and Resort Solway Park Administrator of the Year winner will come from four men who have given huge service to their respective sports & Allan Clarke (softball), Mark Harris (athletics), Phil Keinzley (soccer) and Garry Smith (jet sprint racing).
Four different codes are represented amongst the finalists for the Cross Country Rentals Sports Team of the Year award.
There the Eketahuna women's rugby side will be up against the Giants premier men's softball squad, the Wairarapa United men's soccer team and the Wairarapa under-18 boys hockey team.
Perhaps the most difficult of all category winners to decide will be the Ziggys Masterton Glass Sports Club of the Year with each of the finalists there having a long and proud record of community involvement.
They are Athletics Masterton, Carterton Netball Club, Dalefield Hockey Club and Lansdowne Cricket Club.
Tomorrow night's function will also feature a guest appearance by arguably the most iconic sporting trophy in the country, rugby's Ranfurly Shield.
It is currently held by the Wellington Lions who will put it on the line when they play Wairarapa-Bush in Masterton in early July.
Former Masterton Mayor Bob Francis had the whistle in a couple of the most famous Shield matches and he and WRFU official Sam Rossiter-Stead will both speak on the aura of the "log of wood".