Lifetime Achievement recipient Mark Elliott. PHOTO/FILE
SPORTS AWARDS
CHRIS COGDALE
[email protected]
The recipient of the 2021 Core Legal Lifetime Achievement Award, Mark Elliott, has given more than 43 years of dedication to cricket as a player, umpire, coach, volunteer, and administrator.
Elliott started coaching juniors at the Red Star Cricket Club while still a student at college in the mid-1970s, while still developing their own skills and pursuing their own playing career.
Elliott made his representative debut in 1978 and went on to represent Wairarapa in about 70 games over 20 years.
He was also a talented golfer and was good enough to represent Wairarapa for several years. All this while working hard at administration and coaching within the Red Star club.
After Elliott retired from playing, he took up umpiring in 2003 and quickly progressed through the ranks and made national panels.
He went on to umpire at numerous age-group tournaments, provincial A tournaments, women’s List A games, as well as national one-day games.
In 2015, he achieved a long-held ambition and followed in his father’s footsteps to umpire first-class cricket, albeit only the last day of the Plunket Shield match between Wellington and Otago.
In the same year, he was named the inaugural Umpire of the Year for the Central Districts.
Elliott retired from representative umpiring in 2019 but still stands in club games and is involved in training and administration.
As well, Elliott was one of the guiding lights in seeing the Red Star Cricket Club grow from a struggling junior club in 2010 to more than 150 junior players seven years later.
That was recognised when Red Star was named NZ Cricket Club of the Year in 2017.
Elliott is also the long-serving administration officer for the Red Star Sports Association, a life member of the Red Star Cricket Club, Wairarapa Cricket Association, and Central Districts Cricket Umpires Association.
