Seeing visions succeed makes job worthwhile

Alistair McMurran is retiring from the Otago Daily Times after 39 years as a sports reporter. He looks back on his four decades in the role.

Standing up for the rights of the underdog - that is the part of the job journalists enjoy.

Over the last 39 years, I have been able to back those who have been unjustly treated, and to voice their concerns.

It has made a difference in some major crusades that have forced sports administrators to change their minds.

The first came in 1976, when Otago steeplechaser Euan Robertson was left out of the New Zealand team for the Olympic Games by Bill Holley (convener) and the Olympic selection panel.

Otago had also dominated New Zealand swimming at the time, and three members of Duncan Laing's squad had been nominated by the national swimming selectors and were expected to be named in the team.

I was sent along by the Otago Daily Times to capture the moment of excitement when they were named in the team.

It turned out to be a gloomy story because backstroker Ian Bullock was left out.

Robertson was watching the television in another part of Dunedin and also heard the bad news.

There was a big difference in the reactions of Bullock and Robertson and their sports administrators to the news.

Both were bitterly disappointed. Bullock accepted his fate but Robertson disagreed with the decision and got the backing of the Mornington club and Athletics Otago to mount a campaign to get into the team.

A Dunedin club rugby player, Bob Cook, began a petition that collected thousands of signatures in Otago, and Athletics Otago president Ron Cain protested through the official channels.

A drive was launched to raise the $1700 needed to get Robertson to Europe with the advance New Zealand track and field team.

It was widely supported by the public and the funds were raised.

Swimming officials protested about Bullock's omission but he did not take up the challenge of getting overseas competition to get a qualifying time.

Robertson had equalled Rod Dixon's New Zealand record of 8min 29sec for the 3km steeplechase at Newtown Park in Wellington and everyone thought that was good enough for selection.

He ran 8min 25.34sec in Helsinki but that was still not good enough for Holley and the selectors.

Robertson was finally selected in the team when he ran 8min 22.8sec in Stockholm.

At the Montreal Olympics he finished sixth in a New Zealand record time of 8min 21.08sec.

Athletics Otago has always been willing to stand up for the rights of its athletes.

Last summer, Cain and Andrew Finn protested about the New Zealand track and field championships being held in the North Island for four consecutive years.

In the late 1970s, there was a move by North Island interests to hold all New Zealand rowing championships at Lake Karapiro.

A successful world championships had been held at the lake in 1978.

Rowing Otago administrator Mont Poulter believed the move would lead to a decline in rowing in the South Island.

He led the protest action and it was heard by Max Smith, project manager for the Ministry of Works on the Upper Waitaki hydro-electric scheme.

Smith put in place structures that made the artificial Lake Ruataniwha into an international rowing lake.

National championships are now held at Lake Karapiro and Lake Ruataniwha in alternate years.

The rowing lake not only saved South Island rowing but also the town of Twizel and made it an important destination on the Mackenzie Country tourist map.

Otago long-distance runner Chip Dunckley led another successful protest that led to the Caledonian athletics track being shifted from the windswept South Dunedin to a more sheltered spot at Logan Park.

Dr Barrie Berkeley, a lecturer at the Otago Medical School, was an ice sports enthusiast who was disappointed there was no ice rink in Dunedin.

I reported on a public meeting he chaired in 1976 to form an ice rink in Dunedin.

The Big Chill opened a decade later and was followed by the Dunedin Ice Stadium in 2004.

The stadium was developed into a world-class facility through the hard work of its first manager, Neil Gamble.

The Westpac Bowls Stadium, recognised as the best indoor bowls facility in the country, was the brainchild of Pat O'Dea.

He drove the project and the stadium was opened in 1995.

The Dunedin City Council shouldered the heavy initial debt and a loyal band of volunteers has paid this back over the last 18 years.

Cricket boss Ross Dykes pushed through the developments that turned the University Oval into an international cricket ground.

One of the most-used indoor facilities in Dunedin is the Edgar Centre, which was a renovated wool store.

The generosity of Sir Eion Edgar ensured its development.

Sir Clifford Skeggs' generosity has kept promising younger athletes in the Otago province during their development years through the Skeggs Foundation.

Dunedin City councillor John Bezett has helped keep the New Zealand Masters Games in Dunedin.

More than 6000 athletes attend the event in the city every two years.

Des Smith rejuvenated Otago secondary school sport and made it the envy of the rest of the country, while Paul Allison and John Brimble made Sport Otago into one of the most significant sporting organisations in the country.

The North East Valley Bowling Club has organised the Speight's Invitation singles that has brought the country's top bowlers to Dunedin each Labour Weekend since 1990.

Those have been some of my sporting highlights of the last 39 years.

Most sports in Otago now adopt a more professional approach to their work.

The technology of sports journalism has also changed. When I first joined the staff of the ODT in 1975, we hammered out stories on an old portable typewriter.

We always needed a carbon copy of our stories to send to the New Zealand Press Association.

There was always a messenger on at night to take copy to the Post Office to send up north to NZPA.

At weekends, we had to take copy to the Post Office ourselves. When I covered my first New Zealand bowls championships in 1976, my day was not finished when my story was delivered to the Otago Daily Times.

Another version had to be written and taken to the Post Office to be used by evening newspapers the next day.

There was a significant breakthrough when facsimile machines were introduced in the late 1970s.

In the late 1980s, the Otago Daily Times entered the computer age and the sports department was the guinea pig to test the new system on old laptop computers purchased from The New Zealand Herald.

I used one of these when I covered the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, and filed my report on Tania Murray's high jump gold medal on one of them.

Computers have changed the way we work.

Facts are now checked out on the internet, but books and almanacs are still needed.

The technology might have changed over the last 39 years but the importance of human contact with experts in the sports field remains the same.

We still need to stand on the sidelines to cover club rugby on cold winter days, talk to athletes at the track, swimmers at the pool, rowers at the harbour or lake, or bowlers at the green.

 


Best of the best
McMurran's top Otago athletes, 1975-2014

1) Danyon Loader (swimming)

Double Olympic champion in 200m and 400m freestyle at Atlanta Olympic Games, and a silver medal in the 200m butterfly at the Barcelona Olympics.

2) Hamish Bond (rowing)

Won the Olympic gold medal in pairs in London and five world titles.

3) Jeff Wilson (rugby/cricket)

A rugby genius who ended his career with 44 tries in 60 tests for the All Blacks, he was also a cricket international.

4) Alison Shanks (cycling)

One of New Zealand's greatest female cyclists who won the world individual pursuit title in 2009.

5) Ian Dickison (bowls)

Otago's greatest lawn bowler won the Commonwealth Games singles title in 1986 and a gold medal in triples and silver in fours at World Bowls in 1988.

6) Greg Henderson (cycling)

Won the world scratch race title in 2004, four Commonwealth Games medals and competed in the Tour de France.

7) Euan Robertson (athletics)

New Zealand's most consistent distance runner in the 1970s who finished sixth in 3km steeplechase at the Montreal Olympics and fifth (1975) and sixth (1977) at world cross-country championships.

8) John Campbell (athletics)

At the age of 39 in 1988, Campbell was the oldest runner to win the New Zealand senior men's cross-country title and finished 12th in the marathon at the Seoul Olympics. Won the masters title in the three big marathons - Los Angeles, Boston and New York - two years in a row.

9) Ben Smith (rugby)

Otago's best rugby player of his generation who is poised to become an All Black great.

10) Jenny McDonald (hockey)

Named in women's world hockey team in 1980. Played 94 tests and scored more than 200 goals for New Zealand in all games.

11) Jossi Wells (freeskiing)

Best freeskier in world in 2010 and fourth at 2014 Winter Olympics.

12) Adam Hall (paralympic skiing)

Born with spina bifida and won a gold medal in the men's slalom at 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver.

 


Club rugby
McMurran's XV15.

15. Kevin Galliven(Dunedin)

14. Steve Dunn (Southern)

13. Michael Collins (Taieri)

12. Guy Curtis (University A)

11. Casey Stone (Alhambra-Union)

10. Ben Nowell (Taieri)

9. Dean Moeahu (Green Island)

8. Erik Vaafusuaga (Taieri)

7. Matt O'Connell (Dunedin)

6. Willis Scott (Taieri)

5. Dick Bunton (Green Island)

4. John Hornbrook (Zingari-Richmond)

3. Graeme Laing (Dunedin)

2. Eion Willis (Southern, captain)

1. Andrew Hendry (Green Island)

Reserves: Nick Fisher (Kaikorai), Phil Haua (Alhambra-Union), Daniel Johnson (Pirates), Shane Parata (Pirates), Barry Stevens (Southern), Roy Hawker (University A), Tutere Williams (Zingari-Richmond).

Coaches: Jack McLachlan (Green Island), Russell Hawker (University A), Mike Moeahu (Alhambra-Union), Jason Macdonald (Taieri).

Managers: Mike Reggett (Southern), George Morris (University A).

• Team chosen from 39 seasons of Dunedin club rugby. No All Blacks, Highlanders or players with more than a handful of Otago caps were considered.


 

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