- From Trevor Rowse in Auckland. 
28 December 2006

Back in 1993, the Winfield tobacco company celebrated 30 years of sponsorship of the New Zealand Softball Association with a special awards’ event to commemorate those who feats had taken the game to world titles for men and women, as well as under 19 men.
Kevin Herlihy had a special section because of his elevation to 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 30 years and one of them included Fiona Timu, the now long-serving Auckland and New Zealand captain.
Amazingly she had done enough in only her first four seasons in 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 is still in top form, as she showed recently for Northcote against Waitakere Bears. She and Jackie Smith shed the years, showing the youngsters just how to cover the diamond and smothering the Bears’ attempts to pierce the infield. Fiona’s speed to the bunted ball, covering the area from first base to the third base line, was greater than anyone seen in the past two years in the north.
After 12 seasons with Marist, Fiona switched to North Harbour 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 national captain, club and Auckland captain, leading the local averages in batting and pitching and sweeping the individual awards. These were the Marist club female player of the year, Auckland player of the year and finally New Zealand player of the year, to go with her Bedggood Award from Auckland for services to the game.
From the ASA Annual Report, 2003-004. “A special congratulation to Fiona Timu, who displays both the exceptional work effort and humility when called upon to perform on these occasions. A finer role model could not be picked to display the required temperament to 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-group teams and did what not many manage, to go on in the game after attending the junior world series in 1987.
She has spent some time playing in Italy but the bulk of her time has been in New Zealand, just getting on with it and playing hard. The second half of “Timu’s” career has been spent at Marist after she and Jackie Smith arrived in 1993.
There is no one in the game who has shown such fine personal qualities, for so long, with such a high level of skill, who is still playing. She and such Auckland greats as Gina Weber, Sheryl Kemp (now COE of Canterbury softball), Debbie Mygind (now national pitching coach), Leslie King (now head coach of softball at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia) and Nardi Clark (former Junior White Sox coach and former Auckland team coach) have made huge contributions to the game in Auckland and New Zealand.
The player to rival Fiona as top female player of the seventy years of the game would be Rhonda Hira, one of the most explosive talents in the world. We could do with some clones of Rhonda and Fiona to liven 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 in Oklahoma/NZ U19;
87-88 NZ champions/NZ U21;
88-89 NZ champions/Tournament team/NZ v Australia/NZ at South Pacific Classic/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 base in 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 v Toho/NZ v Australia;
97-98 Captain of Marist/Auckland title/Top batter at nationals/NZ to Netherlands, 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 the year/batted .458;
00-01 Captain of Auckland and NZ/tournament team/NZ v NZ selection and Australian squad;
01-02 Captain NZ v Aust Development/captain v NZ Selection/captain NZ at South Pacific Classic;
02-03 NZ champions/captain of Auckland/ Marist female player of the year/top pitcher and batter in ASA and Marist;
03-04 Top batter at nationals/Auckland captain/national captain/NZ in Canada for Canada Cup/top pitcher and batter in Auckland and Marist/Marist MVP and female player of the year/Ben Davis Award for achievement from Auckland Association.
04-05 Auckland player of the year. Sportsperson of the year and NZ player of 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. Captain of 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 since 1963.

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 and Hutt), Mike Nichols (Wellington), with Mark Sorenson (Hutt) and the late Peter Priddey (Wellington) as utilities. (Mark Sorenson had not reached the peak of his powers at this stage).

Women: Cheryl Kemp (Auckland), Jan Foote (Hawkes Bay), Fiona Timu, Rhonda Hira (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) and Rita Fatialofa (Auckland and Wellington) as utilities.

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