Services to Bay of Plenty Rugby Referees

First Awarded

1989

Current Criteria

Member who has made significant contributions to the club across the season and/or over a period of time.

History

The Presidents Trophy was donated/presented by Charles and Denise Sturt in 1989.

Trophy is awarded annually to a club member for services to refereeing as selected by the RMG.

The late Charles Sturt was a Rotorua-based rugby referee for many years (wife Denise wasn’t sure how many), he started off refereeing JAB then moved in to the senior ranks. Charles retired due to an achilles injury and he later took up rugby coaching in the Rotorua area

Charles Sturt was a Real Estate agent with the Professionals and also a long serving (33 years) Rotorua city councillor who passed away in 2020 after a prolonged battle with cancer.

The Presidents Trophy was so named as the local Rotorua Sub-Association President would select a worthy recipient each year – in recent years, sponsorship of the trophy has become the responsibility of the BOP Rugby Union “Presidents Group”, largely due to the number of former rugby referees who have had the honour of serving as the Union President in recent years.

Recipients

1989 G Wood

1990 P McNab

1991 A Oates

1992 Whakatane Sub Assn

1993 KH Lawrence

1994 J Bennett

1995 R Hanlen

1996 J Cormick

1997 T Dunlop

1998 AK Wellington

1999 T Dunlop

2000 M Langdon

2001 Pat Kilgarriff

2002 Rob Hansen

2003 T Dunlop

2004 M Staffordbush

2005 B Sparks

2006 P Barnett

2007 Graeme Meyrick

2008 Bill Sparks

2009 Grant Wilson

2010 John Donnelly

2011 Bryce Lawrence

2012 Graeme Meyrick

2013 Dave Hodgson

2014 Oloff Arnold

2015 Glenn & Jaydon Moore

2016 David Hodgson

2017 Ian Crowe

2018 Oloff Arnold

2019 Evan Booker

2021 Peter Morgan

2022 Grant Wilson