Fiona Timu, Captain Fantastic

Thu Dec 28 09:05:40 EST 2006

Received: 12/28/06 4:03:00 AM 
From:  Vance <vanf(at)ihug.co.nz> 

Subject:  Fiona Timu, Captain Fantastic  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>From Trevor Rowse in Auckland.   28 December 2006

   Back in 1993, the Winfield tobacco company celebrated 30years
of sponsorship of the New Zealand Softball Association with aspecial
awards' event to commemorate those who feats had taken the gameto
world titles for men and women, as well as under 19 men.
   Kevin Herlihy had a special section because of his elevationto
the International Softball Hall of Fame, as well as the NZ Sports'Hall
of Fame.
   But there were two teams named as top of the pile for the
30years and one of them included Fiona Timu, the now long-serving
Aucklandand New Zealand captain.
   Amazingly she had done enough in only her first four seasonsin
the New Zealand team to beat out all the other first base players,including
Elizabeth Roadley, a former Auckland and NZ captain.
   She is the only one of the two lists still playing, and isstill
in top form, as she showed recently for Northcote against WaitakereBears.
She and Jackie Smith shed the years, showing the youngsters justhow
to cover the diamond and smothering the Bears' attempts to pierce
theinfield. Fiona's speed to the bunted ball, covering the area
from firstbase to the third base line, was greater than anyone
seen in the past twoyears in the north.
   After 12 seasons with Marist, Fiona switched to NorthHarbour
this season, causing dismay in local circles.
   Her career has been outstanding since.

Superb Maturity (written in 03-04 for Marist 60 year book)

   Fiona Timu had her finest season (03-04), being the nationalcaptain,
club and Auckland captain, leading the local averages in battingand
pitching and sweeping the individual awards. These were the Maristclub
female player of the year, Auckland player of the year and finallyNew
Zealand player of the year, to go with her Bedggood Award fromAuckland
for services to the game.
   From the ASA Annual Report, 2003-004. "A specialcongratulation
to Fiona Timu, who displays both the exceptional workeffort and
humility when called upon to perform on these occasions. Afiner
role model could not be picked to display the required temperamentto
our future players.
   For over twenty years Fiona has been a stand-out player.Twice
in two years she played for two NZ national tournament age-groupteams
and did what not many manage, to go on in the game after attendingthe
junior world series in 1987. 
   She has spent some time playing in Italy but the bulk of hertime
has been in New Zealand, just getting on with it and playing
hard.The second half of "Timu's" career has been spent at Maristafter
she and Jackie Smith arrived in 1993. 
   There is no one in the game who has shown such fine personalqualities,
for so long, with such a high level of skill, who is stillplaying.
She and such Auckland greats as Gina Weber, Sheryl Kemp (now
COEof Canterbury softball), Debbie Mygind (now national pitching
coach),Leslie King (now head coach of softball at the University
of Pennsylvaniain Philadelphia) and Nardi Clark (former Junior
White Sox coach andformer Auckland team coach) have made huge
contributions to the game inAuckland and New Zealand.
   The player to rival Fiona as top female player of theseventy
years of the game would be Rhonda Hira, one of the most explosivetalents
in the world. We could do with some clones of Rhonda and Fiona
toliven up the women's game.

Fiona Timu’s records: 

82-83 NZ U14, NZ U16; 
83-84 NI U14, NZ U16, Rest U18; 
84-85 U16 NZ; 
85-86 NZ U21, NZ U19 v Utah; 
86-87 NZ champions/senior tournament team/Girls’ world series
inOklahoma/NZ U19; 
87-88 NZ champions/NZ U21; 
88-89 NZ champions/Tournament team/NZ v Australia/NZ at South
PacificClassic/NZ U21 team; 
89-90 NZ champions/NZ training squad/NZ v Australia (.400 average);

90-91 USA/Canada tour and world series in USA; 
91-92 Tournament team; 
92-93 Tournament team, NZ to China, NZ v Australia; named as
first basein the Winfield team of the past 30 years of sponsorship;

94-95 World series; 
96-97 Captain of Marist/Auckland title/NZ Invitational v Toho
Bank/NZ vToho/NZ v Australia; 
97-98 Captain of Marist/Auckland title/Top batter at nationals/NZ
toNetherlands, USA, NZ to South Pacific classic/Marist second
in nationals;
98-99 World series in Japan. Marist won national club series;

99-00 NZ team at US Cup in San Diego/to Australia/v Australia
in NZ/captain at Olympics in Sydney/to Australia/ Auckland player
of theyear/batted .458; 
00-01 Captain of Auckland and NZ/tournament team/NZ v NZ selection
andAustralian squad; 
01-02 Captain NZ v Aust Development/captain v NZ Selection/captain
NZ atSouth Pacific Classic; 
02-03 NZ champions/captain of Auckland/ Marist female player
of theyear/top pitcher and batter in ASA and Marist; 
03-04 Top batter at nationals/Auckland captain/national captain/NZ
inCanada for Canada Cup/top pitcher and batter in Auckland andMarist/Marist
MVP and female player of the year/Ben Davis Award forachievement
from Auckland Association.
04-05 Auckland player of the year. Sportsperson of the year and
NZ playerof the year. Top batter in Auckland and in national
league (.654).captain of NZ at Canada Cup and v Australia.
05-06 Captain of Auckland. Won NL. MVP of whole National League.
Captainof NZ A.
There are probably some honours missed out of this list.

Here are the Winfield teams named as top players of the 30 years
since1963.

Men: Herlihy (Wellington and Waikato), Terry Nunns (Hutt), Dave
Sorenson(Hutt), Wayne Baldwin (Hutt), Dean Rice (Auckland), Paul
Rogers(Auckland), Dennis Cheyne (Wellington), Jimmy Cotter (Wairarapa
andHutt), Mike Nichols (Wellington), with Mark Sorenson (Hutt)
and the latePeter Priddey (Wellington) as utilities. (Mark Sorenson
had not reachedthe peak of his powers at this stage).

Women: Cheryl Kemp (Auckland), Jan Foote (Hawkes Bay), Fiona
Timu, RhondaHira (Hawkes Bay and Canterbury), Marilyn Marshall
(Hutt and Wellington),Leslie King (USA and Auckland), Marie Ward
(Wellington), Robyn Storer(Canterbury), Jane Earnshaw (Canterbury)
with Martha Rush (Auckland) andRita Fatialofa (Auckland and Wellington)
as utilities.

>From the programme: “These teams were selected from the many
hundredsof players who participated in the game of softball around
New Zealandduring the period of 1963-1993. Selection recognises
both the players’personal abilities and their contributions to
the game during the thirtyyears of continuous sponsorship by
Winfield Limited and theirassociates”. 

http://www.softball.org.nz/ 
* Email:snz at softball.org.nz 

Cheers Vance 
Softball New Zealand web master.
* Email:vanf at ihug.co.nz 

 Al's Fastball News
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