A talented field of nominees has been assembled for the 2014 Maitland Sportsperson of the Year, covering a variety of sports including swimming, athletics, rugby league, Australian rules, martial arts and motor sports.
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JANUARY: Matthew Harris (athletics)
Rutherford 24-year-old Matthew Harris reached new heights in 2014 when he claimed a record sixth state decathlon title.
Harris surpassed the previous mark of Australian great Peter Hadfield and ensured he remained undefeated at the NSW Multi-Event Championships since making his debut at the senior event in 2009.
The Maitland Senior and Little Athletics Club president also posted a personal best tally (7054), exceeding the 7000-point barrier for the second time in his career.
Harris managed to improve personal standards in three disciplines – long jump (7.15 metres), high jump (1.91m) and hurdles (15.47 seconds).
FEBRUARY: Grant Bond and Glen Cox (speedway)
When you think of speedway in the Hunter, the names Bond and Cox are in the forefront.
The Hunter-based duo’s families spans across generations in speedway and in 2014 they added more silverware to their crowded mantelpieces.
Rutherford’s Grant Bond and Boolaroo’s Glen Cox claimed their maiden NSW sidecar title in front of their home crowd at Kurri Kurri Speedway Club in February, ending the nine-year reign of Darrin Treloar.
The following month Treloar got some revenge in the national title, but the Cox family was still in the frame with Glen’s son Blake in the passenger seat.
MARCH: Natasha Scott (lawn bowls)
For once in her life Natasha Scott struggled to concentrate on lawn bowls.
The 23-year-old world champion, nee Van Eldik, who married fellow Raymond Terrace lawn bowler Lennon Scott in 2014, was playing club pairs waiting on a much-anticipated announcement.
There was little to worry about with Scott named in the Australian squad for her second Commonwealth Games campaign.
Scott travelled to Glasgow after wrapping up Hunter women’s pairs, triples and fours titles and returned to deliver a state threes crown on the last bowl of the final despite trailing by two.
APRIL: Lindsay Guy (martial arts)
Martial arts have been a way of life for Lindsay Guy.
“It just gets you, it is part of who you are,” he said.
For the best part of three decades the 50-year-old has been involved in the sport after first coming across the craft in a Mercury article.
It was initially training, then working through black belts and later instructing before opening his own karate school at Telarah.
This year Guy was inducted into the International Sport Karate Association Martial Arts hall of fame as well as being named senior instructor of the year.
MAY: Gai Taylor (BMX)
She might have started out as a spectator, but Thornton’s Gai Taylor has turned BMX into a successful venture.
Taylor used to go to the track and watch daughter Gemma compete, but a few years back decided to have a crack herself.
The former Australian touch football representative has made the most of her move to two wheels and in 2014 claimed her second consecutive national title.
The Maitland-Tenambit BMX Club member won the women’s 45-plus years cruiser category at Shepparton in May after coming back from a race crash injury late last year.
JUNE: Glen Stolk (hockey)
Glen Stolk booked a ticket to the World Cup last year, but the 40-year-old from Bolwarra Heights wasn’t sitting in the stands watching the Socceroos in Brazil.
Stolk was donning his own green and gold uniform as part of the Australian men’s over 40s hockey team contesting the Masters World Cup in the Netherlands.
It wasn’t his national debut, but it was his first World Cup and he made the trip to Rotterdam one to remember.
The Maitland Rams midfielder helped the Australians clinch the crown with a 4-2 penalty stroke victory over the hosts in June, following on from the Kookaburras success in the main draw.
