1956: A yachting gold
New Zealanders were yachting champions in the 1950s and the sport was just as full of drama and humour then as it is now.
‘‘The Christchurch yachtsmen, P. G. Mander and J. U. Cropp, yesterday afternoon won New Zealand’s first Olympic gold medal for yachting,’’ The Press reported on December 6, 1956.
There was controversy as Peter Mander and Jack Cropp had originally finished second on points in the Sharpie class, but Australia was disqualified for obstruction following a French protest. The New Zealanders were then promoted from silver to gold.
It was the second New Zealand gold medal at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics after Norman Read won the 50km walk. It was only the fifth New Zealand gold medal in Olympics history.
The Press quoted Mander when he still thought he was merely a silver medallist: ‘‘It was the gold we were after, and we were determined to win it. But I guess a silver one is better than going home with a kick in the tail.’’
After 10 minutes of questioning by reporters, Mander said: ‘‘Righto, boys, how about dropping your pencils and giving a hand on the boat?’’
The Press said the reporters and photographers obliged.
The paper reported the Australian Rolly Tasker as saying: ‘‘Mander is the sort of bloke who can do everything at once. He can adapt himself to anything; he is certainly a bomb.’’
Cropp and Mander took the second-place Australians to a wine bar to compensate.
Cropp told the Nelson Mail in 2012 there was no ticker-tape parade when they came home. It ‘‘was very low-key compared to what things are now’’.
Cropp and Mander were inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in 1990. Mander died in 1998. Cropp died in 2016.