North Shore Times (New Zealand)
Shore athletes win on field and road
ROAD RELAY CHAMPS
North Harbour Bays repeated their win from last year in the women’s race, capturing their ninth senior New Zealand Road Relay Championships title. Such was their dominance, that six of the seven runners had the fastest laps for the grade. Bays won from the Hamilton City Hawks team by a big margin while University of Canterbury faded at the end to finish third. In the junior men’s six lap 46.3km event, North Harbour Bays finished second. Takapuna won the social grade of the event in Rotorua on September 30.
RUGBY LEAGUE
Northcote Tigers Rugby League Club was recognised by the Auckland Rugby League as the Club of the Year at their annual awards. At the same awards, Tigers premier team captain Taylor Daniels was jointly awarded the Fox Memorial Player of the Year with Dylan Moses from Point Chevalier Pirates. This is the first time that the award has been shared. Geoff Morton has been reappointed as the premier coach for 2018.The club also picked up under-9s Best and Fairest team, Wiremu Waaka was named under-9 open grade Coach of the Year, the under-11s won the Best and Fairest team for under-10/11 restricted grade and Julia Kini was recognised as the under-14 open grade Manager of the Year.
‘‘ To be affiliated with a Major League franchise is an exciting step forward for me.’’
Dan Tan
BASEBALL
Baseball New Zealand’s lengthy list of players plying their trade overseas is constantly growing and now the nation’s top coaches are beginning to receive the benefits of the rapidly expanding sport, too. Auckland-based National Development Officer Dan Tan is now an official scout for Major League Baseball franchise, the Baltimore Orioles. This means that Tan will pass on information about talented ball players in New Zealand, for potential international free agent signings. The 27-year old has been a development officer with Baseball New Zealand for four years and coached North Shore City Baseball Club to the men’s national title earlier this year. ‘‘Baseball is my life, so to be affiliated with a Major League franchise is an exciting step forward for me. It is also humbling to know that people are willing to trust my level of expertise in scouting and evaluating future potential,’’ Tan said.