Have a say in awards

As part of this year’s Southland Sports Awards there will be a People’s Choice Award.

The 2017/18 awards will be held at the Ascot Park Hotel in Invercargill on June 8 and you have a chance to have a say in one of the award winners.

As part of the sporting celebrations The Southland Times Sporting Moment of the Year will be announced after it is voted on by the public.

You can vote by going to southlandtimes.co.nz each day. Voting closes on June 5 at 4pm.

The Southland Times People’s Choice Sporting Moment of the Year nominees are:

Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel (netball)

The Southern Steel’s win of the 2017 ANZ Premiership cemented the team into Southland sporting history as the team progressed through the season undefeated. Far from plain sailing, the team overcame a crash that involved six of its team members only 16 days out from their national netball league win.

On June 12, a promotional visit to Ronald McDonald House by captain Wendy Frew and five teammates turned into a situation where they feared for their lives. The van they were in was hit by a car at a Christchurch intersection, flipping it onto its side.

As a result of the crash, shooter Te Paea Selby-Rickit was left with rib injuries and Frew needed surgery for gashes to her arm and leg.

Only 48 hours after the crash, Frew was courtside sporting 70 stitches as she watched her team take on the Mainland Tactix minus four key players.

Frew and Selby-Rickit returned for the final game against Central Pulse where Steel claimed a 69-53 victory and the inaugural championship of the new ANZ Premiership domestic competition.

Southland Hawke Cup cricket team (cricket)

The Southland cricket team that brought home the Hawke cup after a 26-year drought will always hold a special place within the Southland cricket community

On March 11, the team sealed a dominant 10-wicket victory over Counties Manukau in Manurewa to claim the trophy in the major competition for New Zealand Cricket’s District Associations.

Southland has held the trophy seven times since it was the first team to get its hands on it when it was played for in 1911. Counties Manukau went into the third and final day on Sunday trailing by 12 runs and six second-innings wickets in hand.

By the time they had just two wickets in hand, Counties Manukau held a slender 43-run lead. However, an 80-run ninth-wicket partnership provided the then holders hope.

Counties were eventually bowled out for 209, leaving Southland needing a tricky 126 runs for outright victory.

Robert Dowling (woodchopping)

For 18 years, Dowling dreamed of winning a world title at the Sydney Royal Easter Show and this year he claimed victory in the hardwood single handed sawing event in March. Considered the Wimbledon of wood chopping events, Dowling beat out the likes of legendary New Zealand sawyer Jason Wynyard to get the title.

For the 30-year-old Invercargill man, it was his second world title in two months after his world title victory in the medium wood [pine] single-handed sawing event at Rotorua in January.

Dowling has been winning while managing a back injury and only returned to the sport at the end of last year. In December, he competed for the first time since he shattered his right ankle in 2014.

Dowling is probably Southland’s least known world-ranked sportsman.