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Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Community Gem: Labour of love

by Sam Boyer
Bay of Plenty Times·
14 Nov, 2011 09:29 PM3 mins to read

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He's been involved with Mount Maunganui hockey since he first arrived in the Bay nearly 30 years ago.

He's been groundsman at the turf since 1993 and he's there every weekend cleaning and maintaining the facilities.

It's difficult to overstate the importance of Bill Webb's tireless contributions to Tauranga Hockey Association.

President of the Tauranga Hockey Association Lynn Whitaker said Mr Webb was a crucial part of what made hockey in the region tick.

"He is there so often. He umpires, he plays, he runs the maintenance, he volunteers for everything, he runs working bees - I don't know how many hours he's there," she said.

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"It's huge. It's maintenance, it's sweeping, it's cleaning. It would require a considerable amount of money to pay someone to do what he does. And he's also our media man."

Every Sunday Mr Webb heads down to the turf, volunteering part of his weekend to maintain the buildings, the grounds and the turf, and to monitor the crew of schoolboys who are employed there to clean.

"He does it with such grace, but he doesn't want anything ... he likes to go under the radar.

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"He's just by nature one of society's volunteers - even if he wasn't at hockey, he'd be somewhere else doing it. It's just in his nature.

"I wouldn't like to see him go," Mrs Whitaker said.

He volunteers his time because hockey is what he cares about and he wants be help out.

Mr Webb said he's just one of many volunteers who do what they can for the sports clubs they love.

"I do it because of the love of the sport. But there are numerous people like me in every sport," he said.

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Mr Webb is 63. He has been involved in Mount Maunganui hockey since 1974 when he arrived in the Bay of Plenty from Christchurch via Wellington.

"It's something that I really enjoy. I put in three hours every Sunday as a volunteer, just attending to maintenance and supervising some school boys. They do painting and gardening and emptying the rubbish bins.

"I've been involved ... ever since the turf went in 20 years ago," he said.

As well as looking after the maintenance of the facilities and umpiring several times a week, Mr Webb has also volunteered to be a liaison officer for the coming Champions Trophy, an annual international top eight event being held in North Harbour in December.

He's been pencilled in to be the liaison for the umpires.

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"I put my name down as a volunteer. I was initially down as liaison officer for Pakistan and I thought, 'Oh boy, I don't speak Urdu very well.' So now I'm liaison officer for all the international umpires," he said.

And he still finds time to play too.

"Hockey's one of those sports you can keep playing ... I want to have no injuries and still have a spring in my step in 20 years," he said.

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