Website honours Bay's sporting elite

BOP Ferns Club founder and chairman Alan Trotter is a man on a mission.

He is rightly proud of his newly launched website that celebrates Bay of Plenty sportsmen and women who have made a major contribution at national and international level.

"The website is to be a place where it is convenient to make contact with us and accumulate over time as comprehensive a roll as we can of the people with Bay of Plenty attachments who have served New Zealand sport at the absolute highest elite," Trotter said.

"That sort of record just doesn't seem to exist. There is no comprehensive Bay of Plenty register of who in the past competed and made New Zealand the sporting nation that it is.

"It is in the nature of a sports fraternity, which is there in the background to mentor, to assist and nurture, as well as celebrate the successes from the past. I thought it was timely to do it as we are coming of age as a metropolitan area and these things have never been plugged before."

Trotter would like sporting associations to get in touch via the website to assist with putting together the detailed lists.

"We are treading into new ground. I have time on my hands and it is a pleasure to do it. Hopefully over time our little tag line of "inspiring achievement, celebrating contribution" will be enhanced with real proof of the substantial roll of people from yester-year, who have done well in sport on behalf of New Zealand and they are all from this area.

"We would like to know people who qualify and to have a brief description of what their achievement was. I make no apologies that this is an elitist club. We want to celebrate achievement at open level sport only - the very best that Bay of Plenty has provided."

The club is proud to have local sporting royalty in Dame Susan Devoy and Sir Gordon Tietjens as patrons. Trotter says they could not have got to this stage without the assistance of Richard Cashmore at Eves Real Estate and Tauranga Boys' College student Callum Aubrey has given hours of his time.

Information: www.fernsclub.co.nz