Mason makes it three

Ace Masterton rally driver Richard Mason was crowned Wairarapa Senior Sports Personality of the Year for the third time last evening.
His success at the 2006-07 Wairarapa sports awards function at the Copthorne Hotel and Resort Solway Park followed on previous wins in 2002 and 2005.
And it was hardly a surprise after a magnificent last 12 months which has seen Mason and his partner and co-driver Sara Randall take out the 2006 Rally of New Zealand despite his Subaru Impreza being positively aged by normal rallying standards and his budget being substantially lower than that of most of his rivals.
A second placing in the production world championship class at the RNZ was also a notable feather in the Mason cap and he furthered his rapidly growing reputation on the international scene by competing successfully for the GT Tires team in the Asia Pacific rally in China.
Mason had some stiff opposition for the senior award last night. Joint runners-up were national and North Island cruiserweight kick boxing champion Bryce Baron, a member of the national triathlon squad which contested the world championships in Switzerland in Jesse Bucknell and the captain of the New Zealand divisional rugby squad and Heartland championship-winning Wairarapa-Bush team, Joe Harwood.
Talented athlete Stevie Paine won the Junior Sports Personality of the Year award for the second successive year. A gold medallist on the track in her age groups at both the North Island and South Island Colgate Games and at the Wellington championships, she has a bright future over the middle distances.
Other finalists in the junior section were Henry Booth, winner of the supreme pony (over 128cm) class at the national horse and pony championships, Katrina Simmonds, a strong performer in her division at the national junior swimming championships and soccer's Arnon Tapp, who was selected for a Coerver coaching tour to the United Kingdom.
The Sports Administrator of the Year award was won by one of the highest-ranked basketball referees in New Zealand in Wairarapa College teacher Andy Thackray. He has controlled matches involving both the Tall Ferns and the Tall Blacks over the last year and also travelled overseas with the Tall Blacks.
Contesting against Thackray for the administrative award were Masterton Tennis Centre stalwart Ian Campbell, Giants softball coach Tony Nixon, who took his team to their first-ever Hutt Valley premier division title last season and Peter Russell, who was coach of the Wairarapa-Bush rugby side which won the inaugural Heartland championship and who was also co-coach of the New Zealand divisional rugby squad.
Their win in the Heartland championship was recognised by the Wairarapa-Bush rugby side taking out the Sports Team of the Year award for 2006-07. They had won the same trophy in 2005 after taking out the NPC third division title then.
Filling the joint runners-up position in the team section were the Dalefield women's hockey team who were runners-up in the Wellington premier division competition, the Giants men's softball team which won the Hutt Valley premier division title and the Wairarapa under-15 boys hockey side who were runners-up at their national tourney. Introduced for the first time at last night's function was a Club of the Year award which marks the progess made by clubs or associations in promoting their activities both on and off the field of play.
It was won by the Giants Softball Club which celebrated their 40 re-union this year and which as well as fielding their own club sides in Hutt Valley competition play also administrate and officiate an intermediate league in the local area.
Other finalists there were the Dalefield Hockey Club, which is the biggest hockey club in Wairarapa, the Masterton Red Star JAB rugby, which increased player numbers by 90 per cent last year and the Wairarapa Cricket Umpires Association, which is rated the strongest umpires body in the Central Districts region.