Drysdale wins
Cambridge financial advisor and former Olympic Games gold medallist Mahé Drysdale is Tauranga’s new mayor. With over 80 per cent of the vote counted, Drysdale had 13,419 votes, 5000 clear of second placed Greg Brownless.
Drysdale, 45, was raised in Tauranga and attended Tauranga Boys’ College but now lives in Maungatautari with wife Juliette (nee Haigh) – herself a former world champion rower and Olympic bronze medallist – and their three children Frankie, 4, Boston, 7 and Bronte, 9.
Mahé Drysdale
He is a two-time Olympic Champion – in 2012 and 2016 in the single scull – and won the World Championships five times. He was flag bearer and team captain of the New Zealand Olympic Team at the 2008 Games and the Supreme Halberg Award Winner in 2006 and winner of the Sportsman of the Year at the Halberg Awards in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 and 2016.
During the campaign he told voters he would consider moving to Tauranga with his family and would leave his job as a financial advisor at Forsyth Barr. He is the grandson of former Tauranga mayor and business magnate Sir Bob Owens. His mother, brother and sister live in Tauranga.
Hautapu loses
Hautapu has lost its Breweries Shield premiership rugby title, going down 22-8 to Hamilton Marist today.
Premier: Hamilton Marist 22 (Liam Gilheany-Black, Mason Tupaea, penalty try, Fletcher Morgan penalty, conversion) Hautapu 8 (David Morris try, Quintony Ngatai pen) Halftime 19-3.
Meanwhile in division one, Leamington lost 16-12 against Suburbs in Flagstaff, Hamilton.
Other results:
Premiership B Rowe Cup: Hamilton Old Boys 40 Ōtorohanga 31.
Divi 1: Ōhaupō 7 Hinuera 5, Pirongia 79 Kereone 0; Div 1 A: Ōhaupō 7 Hinuera 5. Div 1 B: Suburbs 10 Leamington 20, Ōhaupō 7 Hinuera 27, Pirongia 31 Kereone 7.
Presidents: Pirongia 17 Leamington 0, Melville 14 Kihikihi 24.
July 18 – 8pm
Nominations open
The awards
Nominations for the Property Brokers National Breeding Awards, to be held at the Don Rowlands Event Centre in Cambridge on July 27, have been announced. There will be awards for the Sir Patrick and Justine Lady Hogan Breeder of the Year, the Small Breeder of the Year, Eight Carat Broodmare of the Year, premiership-winning stallions, as well as the Entain Personality of the Year, Mary-Lynne Ryan Young Achiever, and the Seton Otway Horse of the Year. The breeders of all 25 individual Group One winners throughout the season will also be recognised.
Fighting back
Council staff installing camera at Terry Came Drive.
Cameras have been installed at Cambridge’s Terry Came Drive playground following three vandal attacks in the past two weeks. The two most recent incidents have seen a toilet seat broken twice, the sanitary bin ripped off, the facility tagged, toilet paper stuck to the ceiling and a bucket of cement thrown around, including on the drinking fountain. The cameras have been installed to film and catch future offenders.
See: Vandals Came, saw, trashed
Cement thrown on drinking fountain.
Time on
The Westminster chimes on Cambridge’s Town Clock returned this week and the timepiece has been lit up to celebrate the completion of the $721,000 Waipā District Council restoration project. Hoarding came down on Monday and work will soon get underway on paving around the tower building.
Sheedy elected
Sally Sheedy
Waipa Customer and Community Services group manager Sally Sheedy has been elected the Midlands Area representative on Taituarā Local Government Professionals Aoteaora executive.
It follows her appointment as Civil Defence Emergency Management Local Recovery manager for Waipā earlier this year.
Flats open
Waipā mayor Susan O’Regan handed over the keys to the 10 one-bedroom pensioner units in Leamington to Habitat for Humanity central region chief executive Nic Greene last week.
The council will own and maintain the units and Habitat for Humanity will manage the tenants and rental process. The new units will add to Waipā’s existing 93 pensioner units spread across Cambridge, Kihikihi and Te Awamutu. These will now house a total of 117 tenants.
Official handover of Vaile Court pensioner housing units
House grant
Cambridge Community House Trust has been given a $1000 funding to support training and qualifications for a support worker in the latest round of grants announced by Rural Women New Zealand. The organisation assists initiatives for rural communities that support children, the elderly, community, conservation, counselling and education through two funds – Scotlands Te Kiteroa Charitable Trust and Cynthia Collier Grant.
Ritchie wins
Cambridge horseman Frank Ritchie. Photo: Kenton Wright (Race Images)
Cambridge trainer Frank Ritchie was thrilled to collect a winning double on the synthetic track last week. Stunning Maire was the first followed by Lemon Curd, who backed up her stablemate’s performance in the following event. Meanwhile an extraordinary performance by Sister Ping at had Chad Ormsby excited about the filly’s prospects for her three-year-old season. The two-year-old was sent out as a $3.30 favourite against older opposition, but she appeared to have lost all hope when she reared at the start and was languishing five lengths behind the second-last horse. Sister Ping’s recovery had to be seen to be believed. She was still at the back of the field at the home turn, but jockey Kelly Myers angled her to the outside and she charged home to win by half a length.
Sister Ping. Photo: Race Images
