Brian Mudgway's Manawatū Sports Guide growing in popularity

Manawatu Sports Guide producer Brian Mudgway with Options in Community Living support worker Karina Bigwood. Photo / Judith Lacy

Brian Mudgway is not just a great follower of Manawatū sport, he spends a good chunk of his week recording results.

Each week, he produces the Manawatū Sports Guide. The 12 pages are full of photos, results, draws and event information.

Mudgway has been producing the guide for about four years. He is a great follower of many codes and a regular attendee at club and rep rugby. Mudgway used to play football when he was younger and the odd game of rugby.

He has a brain injury that affects his processing times. Producing the guide gives him something to do and he gets a good response from the clubs he distributes it to.

He prints about 20 copies each week and draws his information from club websites, picking the photos to go in the guide.

Options in Community Living support worker Karina Bigwood does the typing and talks with Mudgway about layout options.

There's some old-fashioned cutting and pasting involved, then he drops the pages off to be photocopied before delivering the guide on Thursdays. The copying is paid for by Team Robinson Bayleys Manawatū.

Mudgway says the guide is going from strength to strength and the quality is getting better each week. His goal is to have some help to make it bigger and include a wider range of sports. Currently he covers rugby, hockey, football, cricket and speedway and hopes to include netball next year.

He has a weekly show, Sports Guide, on Manawatū People's Radio during which he reads results and draws. Helping him with that is support worker Aaron Speller. Sports Guide is up to its 123rd episode and airs on Fridays at 3pm.

Mudgway is a big fan of PN Old Boys Marist and he helps Manawatū Cricket with the scoreboard.

He watches a lot of sport on Sky but gets irritated by constant ads. He recommends turning off the sound on the TV and listening to the radio commentary when watching rugby.

Born in Auckland, Mudgway has lived in Palmerston North since he was 5.