Dwayne Tamatea - Herald file picture
To receive national recognition for service in any sphere is rare.
The outstanding contribution that Clifton Blumfield and Dwayne Tamatea have made to basketball was recognised at the Basketball New Zealand Awards on Saturday night.
Blumfield and Tamatea — life members of the Gisborne Basketball Association alongside former president Stephanie Beattie, former treasurer Keith Twiddy, Rising Suns supremo Frank Russell and sportscaster Ben O’Brien-Leaf — have made a tremendous contribution to the game and as such were invited guests to the ceremony at Parliament’s Banquet Hall.
Tamatea — a second-division champion with New Plymouth, former National League point-guard, Suns captain, GBA chairman and head coach — was unable to attend for health reasons, but his reaction would surprise no one familiar with him or his work ethic.
Tamatea won the 2021 BBNZ Service to Coaching Award.
“The award makes me feel like I have to do more,” Tamatea said.
“I’ve played basketball since I was at primary school. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m a ball freak. Aside from my family and work, it is my life.”
Tamatea’s citation read: “He deflects a lot of the praise for his achievements on his supportive family: Lisa, Paige and Jerome. The family returned to Taranaki in 2021.
“The Gisborne Basketball Association wishes to express how grateful they are to the recipient and his whanau for the time, energy and commitment they gave to the development of basketball in the Gisborne region.
“We wish him all the best and expect to see his coaching career continue to build.”
Accepting the Service to Coaching Award on Tamatea’s behalf was Tall Blacks head coach and former captain Pero Cameron.
Cliff Blumfield is the longest-serving and best referee in the history of the old Poverty Bay Basketball Association and the GBA.
On Saturday night, he was the recipient of a Long Service Award for 50 years of service to the game — 2022 marks what will be his 59th year as an official.
He refereed the inaugural Draft League last year, served as a referee trainer at the Mel Young Easter Classic tournament in Tauranga and last week pulled up a chair to assess referees at the John McFarlane Memorial Sports Centre.
It was at the Sports Centre’s predecessor, the Gisborne Boys’ High School gymnasium, that Blumfield’s refereeing journey began in 1963. He was both a player and official at the time.
His role in the creation of what was first named the Rising Suns in the national second division, his appointment — along with that of his legendary off-sider Bruce Copeman — to control the first game here on April 22, 1989, and his transporting 6ft 8in, 17-stone Doug DeVore and 6ft 7in, 18-stone Robson Tavita to Gisborne from Auckland in a Ford Laser . . . these things are the stuff of legend.
Blumfield was accompanied on the big night by daughters Michelle and Cassandra.
Having said upon his induction as a GBA life member that he’d loved every minute of his involvement with the game, and met many people and characters that he never would have if not for basketball, on this occasion he said: “I don’t do what I do to get awards; I do it because I love it.”
The sprightly Blumfield has a crucial contribution still to make in terms of guiding the next generation of referees.
Those referees include talented all-rounders such as Ethan Ngarangione-Pearson, rugby converts like Brendan Walsh and even a former GBA president in Adrian Sparks. Blumfield watches them all closely.
His citation, taken from The Herald, came from former reporter, chief sub-editor and Suns announcer Dave Conway:
“He was fit, quick around the court, highly qualified and highly regarded. Cliff’s refereed thousands of games around the country, from kids’ under-13s to men’s first, second and third division and women’s basketball.
“His commitment and contribution over many years have been outstanding and reflect the kind and generous man he is.”