Award for cricket icon
Southern Cape Cricket icon, Simon Swigelaar, was honoured with the Eden Sport Council Presidential Award at the Garden Route Badgers launch of the season function at the Six Gun Grill Recreation Ground in Oudtshoorn on Wednesday, 21 September.
The 88-year-old Swigelaar joined Union Stars Cricket Club in Oudtshoorn in 1948 at the age of 15 and currently serves as the honorary life president of this club.
He also represented and served Union Stars as secretary, treasurer, captain and selector.
He represented the SWD senior cricket team in the Dadebye tournament in Port Elizabeth in 1963/64 and officiated as a provincial umpire from 1974 to 1989. He served as president of the SWD Cricket Board from 1981 to 1991 and was instrumental in the unity process of SWD Cricket in 1991.
He was a General Council member of the United Cricket Board of South Africa from 1991 to 1993 as president of a unified SWD Cricket Board and is currently the honorary life president of the SWD Cricket Board.
He also served as a member of the Transformation Committee of the Boland Cricket Board from 1999 to 2001.
His length of service at provincial level stretches over a period of more than 50 years – as a player, umpire, administrator and selector.
He served as the president of the SWD Cricket Board for more than a decade and has been the honorary life president of SWD Cricket since 1995
In 1983 he received a merit award from the South African Cricket Board after officiating as an umpire in the Benson & Hedges final between Western Province and Eastern Province. In 1993 he was honoured with a mayoral award from the mayor of Oudtshoorn for his contribution, achievements and service to cricket and the community.
In 2003 the Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport honoured him with a lifetime achievement award for his contribution towards cricket.
In 2007 he was honoured with a legend award from the Western Cape MEC for Sport and Recreation for his contribution to the unification process of sporting bodies in South Africa.
On invitation, he accompanied the South African cricket tour to India (under the captaincy of Clive Rice) in 1991. In 2013 he was elected as an honorary life member of Cricket South Africa and he also received the Eden Sport Council Presidential Award in 2014.