KEY POINTS:
Herald photographer Brett Phibbs won the best-portfolio award at last night's Sir Terry McLean National Sports Journalism Awards in Auckland.
The awards, sponsored by Sparc, attracted about 300 past and present media and sporting celebrities. Among the special guests were representatives of the three outstanding sports teams of 50 years ago.
Present were John Reid, Sam Guillen, Jack Alabaster and Noel McGregor, members of the first national cricket team to win a test against the West Indies in March 1956, and Tiny White, Kevin Skinner, Pat Walsh, Ross Brown and Dennis Young of the All Black team that scored NZ's first test-series win against the Springboks. With them was Patsy Clarke, widow of the team's fullback, Don Clarke.
Also at the dinner were 1956 Olympians Jack Cropp (gold medallist in yachting in Melbourne), Val Young, Don Rowlands, Jean Hurring and Bev Robertson.
Joining them at the dinner were former Olympic, Commonwealth and world champion representatives including Yvette Williams, Ian Ferguson, Paul Macdonald, Chris White, Mike Stanley, Ralph Roberts, Terry Jarvis, Mark Burgess, Kevin Barry, Hedley Howarth, Barry Sinclair, John Sparling, Leslie Egnot, Rod Davis, Geoff Smale and Hal Wagstaff.
A record 206 entries were received for the awards. The big prize went to radio broadcaster Andrew Saville, the voice of rugby, on tour with the All Blacks, who took out the Sports Journalist of the Year as well as the Sports Radio category.
Herald chief rugby writer Wynne Gray was a finalist in the sports news print category, which was won by Dylan Cleaver of the Herald on Sunday. That paper's sports editor, Paul Lewis, won the feature writing in newspapers award and the sport columnist award.
The outstanding contribution to sport through journalism award went to former cricket and soccer commentator Alan Richards, who made his radio debut covering that memorable cricket win at Eden Park in 1956.
Yachting commentator Peter Montgomery and former Press rugby writer John Brooks were made life members of the NZ Sporting Journalists Association.
