1974 British Commonwealth Games

The 1974 British Commonwealth Games (Māori: 1974 Taumāhekeheke Commonwealth) were held in Christchurch, New Zealand, from 24 January to 2 February 1974. The bid vote was held in Edinburgh at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games. The event was officially named "the friendly games". There were 1,276 competitors and 372 officials, according to the official history, and public attendance was excellent. The main venue was the QEII Park, purpose-built for this event. The Athletics Stadium and fully covered Olympic standard pool, diving tank, and practice pools were all on the one site. The theme song was "Join Together", sung by Steve Allen. The event was held after the 1974 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in Dunedin for wheelchair athletes.

X British Commonwealth Games

Host city	Christchurch, New Zealand
Nations	38
Athletes	1276
Events	121 events in 10 sports
Opening	24 January 1974
Closing	2 February 1974
Opened by	Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Queen's Baton Final Runner	Sylvia Potts
Main venue	QEII Park

Host selection

1974 Commonwealth Games bidding results

City	Round 1
Christchurch	36
Melbourne	2

Preparation

Security

The event was the first large international athletic event after the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The Athletes Village, the Student accommodation of the University of Canterbury, was temporarily fenced in and guarded for the duration of the games. Only official vehicles and persons were allowed into sensitive areas around the venues.

Logo

The logo was the second (after Edinburgh) to be protected and trademarked, and set a design benchmark which was echoed in the logos of the next five games. The logo was designed by Wellington designer Colin Simons as the result of a design competition, and posters were designed by Bret de Thier.

In recent years the logo has been regarded as one of New Zealand's iconic symbols, being reproduced on clothing and elsewhere.

Venues

• Queen Elizabeth II Park – ceremonies, athletics, diving, swimming
• Cowles Stadium – badminton
• Woolston Working Men's Club – bowls
• Canterbury Court – boxing
• Denton Park – track cycling
• Christchurch Town Hall – weightlifting, wrestling
• McLeans Island – shooting (smallbore)
• West Melton – shooting (largebore)
• Yaldhurst – shooting (trap)
• Cashmere/Beckenham/Huntsbury – road cycling
• University of Canterbury – athlete's village

Opening ceremony

Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Anne, Princess Royal and Charles, Prince of Wales in attendance at the Games

The opening ceremony was held in the mid afternoon, with Prince Philip as the attending royal. A fanfare announced the guard of honour by the New Zealand Defence Forces, inspected by Prince Philip. This was followed by the raising of flags of the past, present, and future hosts. God Save the Queen was sung. The field was then invaded by 2500 school children in red, white and blue rain slicks all forming in the centre to create the NZ74 symbol. The official promotional song, 'Join Together', composed especially for the games by Steve Allen, was performed by a mass choir, as well as 'What the world needs now is love'. A Māori concert group then performed action songs and a haka, before the teams march past. The athletes then took the oath and Sylvia Potts, the runner who fell mere meters from a gold medal finish in the 1970 Games, entered the stadium with the Queen's Baton. It was presented to Prince Philip who read the message from the Queen declaring the 1974 Christchurch 10th British Commonwealth Games open. The Commonwealth flag was then marched in and hauled up with a 21-gun salute.

Broadcasting

The Games were also an important milestone in New Zealand television, marking the introduction of colour television. However, due to the NZBC's limited colour facilities, only athletics, swimming, and boxing could be broadcast in colour.

Meanwhile, paralleling the television coverage, the National Film Unit produced Games '74, a feature-length documentary of the Christchurch games (and the many events) in full colour. This has since been restored and is available on DVD.

Legacy

Economic aspects

Elizabeth II at a medal ceremony

Christchurch was (and still is) the smallest city to host the modern televised Commonwealth Games. This was the first games that tried using the "Olympic" look with a standard colour scheme for facilities, passes, flags, stationery, and above all uniforms (which wearers only borrowed, but could buy outright as a memento thus helping keep costs down).

Its striking NZ74 design logo is now a well used (sometimes illegally) symbol of New Zealand as a nation and Christchurch as a city. It is still copyright owned by Christchurch City Council but is allowed for free use unless for commercial gain. Badges, lapels, stationery and postcards are still in re-manufactured circulation.

This was also the first time that a city had asked the Games Federation to allow commercial advertising. This was voted down as the Federation feared that advertising by big corporations would remove focus away from the amateur ethos of the Games. As no commercial hoardings were allowed, Christchurch got around this with the use of "sponsorship", one example being General Motors providing a lease fleet of Holden HQ Kingswood sedans that would be sold off after the games. The cars are now sought after by private and museum collectors and have depreciated little in value. Air New Zealand allowed large NZ74 symbols to be placed on the fuselage sides of the airline's brand new McDonnell Douglas DC-10s, giving free advertising around the world. This in itself set a trend since with airlines vying to be "official airline" of a particular event.

Although the Games themselves were a success, making a then sizable profit of $500,000, the "sponsorship" was nowhere near enough. The City of Christchurch was left with a financial facilities management debt (QEII Park) of what would be in today's (2016) amount of NZ$120 million. This deterred the city from hosting major events until 1990 when the government stepped in with lotteries funding to clear the remaining debt. By then, Auckland's 1990 games had been fully commercialized.

Queen Elizabeth II Park The most visible facility left behind by the 1974 Commonwealth Games was the purpose-built stadium and swimming complex. For a few years after, the stadium was a popular destination for sports and leisure patrons who were well indulged in first class facilities. However the costs of maintaining the complex grew over time and soon other additions included hydro-slides and fun park outside on the large grassed area that was once the race course. Christchurch City Council, the owner of the complex continued to develop the ground and for five years from 1990, allowed the Canterbury Greyhound Club to run a track on the inner oval. The main swimming pool was adapted so it could be decked over for Basketball and Netball. Football and Rugby League returned to the stadium in 1995 on a more permanent basis and a minor refurbishment of the track saw athletics events become a main summer event again. Early plans for a hosting of the 2022 Commonwealth Games were in hand when the September 2010 earthquake of around 7.1 hit near Christchurch and damaged the facility. Assessors immediately reported that the damage was repairable and could be covered by insurance. The swimming pools were drained to await repair when the more devastating 22 February 2011 earthquake struck Christchurch, damaging the entire facility, already weakened, beyond economic repair. After laying abandoned for three years, the stadium was demolished and by 2016 the ground stabilized in preparation of more economical facilities and a connecting high school.

Robin Tait receives his gold medal from Anne, Princess Royal

Future 2026/2030 Bids proposals As a rebuilding legacy, there have been calls for Christchurch to bid for the new style Commonwealth Games that allow a core central city to host a more nationwide event. This has been seen as a more economical format for smaller cities, and countries to host what had become an expensive event for a singular city to host.

Precedents set

While the opening ceremony was a regimented and very formal affair, the late afternoon closing ceremony was anything but. This set a precedent for other closing ceremonies since then. With the formalities out of the way, the handing over of the flag to representatives of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the athletes broke ranks and ran amok, much to the delight of the packed stadium and the Queen herself. A flypast of the then Red Checkers RNZAF display team brought the ceremony to a close as the Queen and Prince Philip did a lap of honour around the stadium and departed.

The youngest competitor at the games was New Zealander Rebecca Perrott, 121⁄2; swimming for Fiji at the games, as her father was Registrar at the University of the South Pacific.

Participating teams

Participating countries

38 teams were represented at the 1974 Games.
(Teams competing for the first time are shown in bold).

Medals by country

  *   Host nation (New Zealand)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Australia (AUS)	29	28	25	82
2	England (ENG)	28	31	21	80
3	Canada (CAN)	25	19	18	62
4	New Zealand (NZL)*	9	8	18	35
5	Kenya (KEN)	7	2	9	18
6	India (IND)	4	8	3	15
7	Scotland (SCO)	3	5	11	19
8	Nigeria (NGR)	3	3	4	10
9	Northern Ireland (NIR)	3	1	2	6
10	Uganda (UGA)	2	4	3	9
11	Jamaica (JAM)	2	1	0	3
12	Wales (WAL)	1	5	4	10
13	Ghana (GHA)	1	3	5	9
14	Zambia (ZAM)	1	1	1	3
15	Malaysia (MAS)	1	0	3	4
16	Tanzania (TAN)	1	0	1	2
17	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG)	1	0	0	1
18	Trinidad and Tobago (TRI)	0	1	1	2
	Western Samoa (WSM)	0	1	1	2
20	Singapore (SIN)	0	0	1	1
	Swaziland	0	0	1	1
Totals (21 entries)		121	121	132	374

Medals by event

Athletics

Main article: Athletics at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games

Badminton

Main article: Badminton at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games

Event		Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's Singles	Men	Punch Gunalan	Jamie Paulson	Derek Talbot
Men's Doubles	Men	Elliot Stuart & Derek Talbot	Ray Stevens & Mike Tredgett	Punch Gunalan & Dominic Soong
Women's Singles	Women	Gillian Gilks (Perrin)	Margaret Beck	Sylvia Ng
Women's Doubles	Women	Margaret Beck & Gillian Gilks	Margaret Boxall & Sue Whetnall	Rosalind Singha Ang & Sylvia Ng
Mixed Doubles	Mixed	Derek Talbot & Gillian Gilks	Paul Whetnall & Nora Gardner	Elliot Stuart & Sue Whetnall

Bowls

Main article: Lawn bowls at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games

Boxing

Event		Gold	Silver	Bronze
Light Flyweight	Men	Stephen Muchoki	James Odwori	Syed Abdul Kadir
				John Bambrick
Flyweight	Men	Davy Larmour	Chandra Narayanan	Saliu Ishola
				John Byaruhanga
Bantamweight	Men	Patrick Cowdell	Ali Rojo	Newton Chisanga
				Isaac Maina
Featherweight	Men	Eddie Ndukwu	Shadrack Odhiambo	Dale Anderson
				Samuel Mbugua
Lightweight	Men	Ayub Kalule	Kayin Amah	Muniswami Venu
				Robert Colley
Light Welterweight	Men	Obisia Nwankpa	Anthony Martey	Philip Mathenge
				James Douglas
Welterweight	Men	Mohamed Muruli	Errol McKenzie	John Rodgers
				Steve Cooney
Light Middleweight	Men	Lottie Mwale	Alex Harrison	Lance Revill
				Robert Davies
Middleweight	Men	Frankie Lucas	Julius Luipa	Carl Speare
				Les Rackley
Light Heavyweight	Men	Bill Knight	William Byrne	Gordon Ferris
				Isaac Ikhouria
Heavyweight	Men	Neville Meade	Fatai Ayinla	Benson Masanda
				Vai Samu

Cycling

Track

Event		Gold		Silver		Bronze
Time Trial	Men	Dick Paris	00:01:12	John Nicholson	00:01:12	Ian Hallam	00:01:12
Sprint	Men	John Nicholson		Xavier Mirander		Ian Atherly
Individual Pursuit	Men	Ian Hallam	00:05:05	Willi Moore	00:05:12	Gary Sutton	00:05:09
Team Pursuit	Men	Mick Bennett, Rik Evans, Ian Hallam & Willi Moore	00:04:41	Murray Hall, Kevin Nichols, Garry Reardon & Gary Sutton	00:04:49	Paul Brydon, René Heyde, Russell Nant & Blair Stockwell	overtook
10 Miles Scratch	Men	Steve Heffernan	00:20:51	Murray Hall	00:20:52	Ian Hallam	00:20:52
Tandem	Men	Geoffrey Cooke & Ernest Crutchlow	10.74	John Rush & Danny O'Neil		Paul Medhurst & Philip Harland

Road

Event		Gold		Silver		Bronze
Road Race	Men	Clyde Sefton	05:07:17	Phil Griffiths	05:07:46	Remo Sansonetti	05:17:27

Diving

Main article: Diving at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games

Shooting

Pistol

Event		Gold		Silver		Bronze
50m Free Pistol	Men/Open	Jules Sobrian	549	Norman Harrison	549	Laszlo Antal	543
25m Rapid-Fire Pistol	Men/Open	William Hare	586	Jules Sobrian	583	Bruce McMillan	581

Rifle

Event		Gold		Silver		Bronze
50m Rifle Prone	Men/Open	Yvonne Gowland	594	Bill Watkins	591	Alister Allan	591
Full Bore Rifle	Men/Open	Maurie Gordon	387.26	Colin McEachran	386.27	James Spaight	383.35

Shotgun

Event		Gold		Silver		Bronze
Trap	Men/Open	John Primrose	196	Brian Bailey	193	Philip Lewis	191
Skeet	Men/Open	Harry Willsie	194	Joe Neville	191	Robin Bailey	189

Swimming

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 m freestyle	Michael Wenden (AUS)	52.73	Bruce Robertson (CAN)	53.78	Brian Phillips (CAN)	54.11
200 m freestyle	Steve Badger (AUS)	1:56.72	Bruce Robertson (CAN)	1:57.21	Michael Wenden (AUS)	1:57.83
400 m freestyle	John Kulasalu (AUS)	4:01.44	Brad Cooper (AUS)	4:02.12	Steve Badger (AUS)	4:04.07
1500 m freestyle	Steve Holland (AUS)	15:34.73	Mark Treffers (NZL)	15:59.82	Steve Badger (AUS)	16:22.23
100 m backstroke	Mark Tonelli (AUS)	59.65	Steve Pickell (CAN)	59.88	Brad Cooper (AUS)	1:00.17
200 m backstroke	Brad Cooper (AUS)	2:06.31	Mark Tonelli (AUS)	2:09.47	Robert Williams (AUS)	2:09.83
100 m breaststroke	David Leigh (ENG)	1:06.52	David Wilkie (SCO)	1:07.37	Paul Naisby (ENG)	1:08.52
200 m breaststroke	David Wilkie (SCO)	2:24.42	David Leigh (ENG)	2:24.75	Paul Naisby (ENG)	2:27.36
100 m butterfly	Neil Rogers (AUS)	56.58	Byron MacDonald (CAN)	56.83	Bruce Robertson (CAN)	56.84
200 m butterfly	Brian Brinkley (ENG)	2:04.51	Ross Seymour (AUS)	2:06.64	John Coutts (NZL)	2:07.03
200 m individual medley	David Wilkie (SCO)	2:10.11	Brian Brinkley (ENG)	2:12.73	Gary MacDonald (CAN)	2:12.98
400 m individual medley	Mark Treffers (NZL)	4:35.90	Brian Brinkley (ENG)	4:41.29	Raymond Terrell (ENG)	4:42.94
4×100 m freestyle relay	Canada (CAN) Brian Phillips Bruce Robertson Gary MacDonald Ian MacKenzie	3:33.79	Australia (AUS) Michael Wenden Neil Rogers Peter Coughlan Ross Patterson	3:34.26	England (ENG) Brian Brinkley Colin Cunningham Keith Walton Raymond Terrell	3:38.22
4×200 m freestyle relay	Australia (AUS) John Kulasalu Michael Wenden Robert Nay Steve Badger	7:50.13	England (ENG) Brian Brinkley Colin Cunningham Neil Dexter Raymond Terrell	7:52.90	Canada (CAN) Bruce Robertson Gary MacDonald Ian MacKenzie Jim Fowlie	7:53.38
4×100 m medley relay	Canada (CAN) Brian Phillips Bruce Robertson Steve Pickell William Mahony	3:52.93	Australia (AUS) Mark Tonelli Michael Wenden Neil Rogers Nigel Cluer	3:55.76	England (ENG) Brian Brinkley Colin Cunningham David Leigh Stephen Nash	4:00.48

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 m freestyle	Sonya Gray	59.13	Gail Amundrud	59.36	Judy Wright	59.46
200 m freestyle	Sonya Gray	2:04.27	Jenny Turrall	2:06.90	Gail Amundrud	2:07.03
400 m freestyle	Jenny Turrall	4:22.09	Wendy Quirk	4:22.96	Jaynie Parkhouse	4:23.09
800 m freestyle	Jaynie Parkhouse	8:58.49	Jenny Turrall	8:58.53	Rosemary Milgate	8:58.59
100 m backstroke	Wendy Cook	1:06.37	Donna-Marie Gurr	1:06.55	Linda Young	1:07.52
200 m backstroke	Wendy Cook	2:20.37	Sandra Yost	2:22.07	Donna-Marie Gurr	2:23.74
100 m breaststroke	Christine Gaskell	1:16.42	Marian Stuart	1:16.61	Sandra Dickie	1:17.17
200 m breaststroke	Pat Beavan	2:43.11	Beverley Whitfield	2:43.58	Allison Smith	2:45.08
100 m butterfly	Patti Stenhouse	1:05.38	Kim Wickham	1:05.96	Sandra Yost	1:06.04
200 m butterfly	Sandra Yost	2:20.57	Patti Stenhouse	2:20.66	Gail Neall	2:21.66
200 m individual medley	Leslie Cliff	2:24.13	Becky Smith	2:25.17	Susan Hunter	2:26.18
400 m individual medley	Leslie Cliff	5:01.35	Becky Smith	5:03.68	Susan Hunter	5:07.20
4 × 100 m freestyle relay	Anne Jardin Becky Smith Gail Amundrud Judy Wright	3:57.14	Debra Cain Jennifer Turrall Sonya Gray Suzy Anderson	4:02.37	Alyson Jones Avis Willington Lesley Allardice Susan Edmondson	4:05.59
4 × 100 m medley relay	Gail Amundrud Marian Stuart Patti Stenhouse Wendy Cook	4:24.77	Beverley Whitfield Debra Cain Linda Young Sonya Gray	4:30.55	Gillian Fordyce Kim Wickham Morag McGlashan Sandra Dickie	4:31.68

Weightlifting

Event		Gold		Silver		Bronze
Flyweight – Overall	Men	Precious McKenzie (ENG)	215	Anil Mondal (IND)	200	John McNiven (SCO)	192.5
Bantamweight – Overall	Men	Michael Adams (AUS)	222.5	Yves Carignan (CAN)	212.5	Shanmug Velliswamy (IND)	212.5
Featherweight – Overall	Men	George Vasiliades (AUS)	237.5	Gerald Hay (AUS)	235	Brian Duffy (NZL)	232.5
Lightweight – Overall	Men	George Newton (ENG)	260	Ieuan Owen (WAL)	255	Bruce Cameron (NZL)	252.5
Middleweight – Overall	Men	Tony Ebert (NZL)	275	Stanley Bailey (TRI)	275	Robert Wrench (WAL)	270
Light Heavyweight – Overall	Men	Tony Ford (ENG)	302.5	Paul Wallwork (SAM)	300	Mike Pearman (ENG)	292.5
Middle Heavyweight – Overall	Men	Nicolo Ciancio (AUS)	330	Brian Marsden (NZL)	315	Steve Wyatt (AUS)	310
Heavyweight – Overall	Men	Russ Prior (CAN)	352.5	John Bolton (NZL)	340	Rory Barrett (NZL)	320
Super Heavyweight – Overall	Men	Graham May (NZL)	342.5	Andy Kerr (ENG)	337.5	Terry Perdue (WAL)	330

Wrestling

Event		Gold	Silver	Bronze
Light Flyweight	Men	Mitchell Kawasaki (CAN)	Wally Koenig (AUS)	Radhey Shyam (IND)
Flyweight	Men	Sudesh Kumar (IND)	Gordon Bertie (CAN)	John Navie (AUS)
Bantamweight	Men	Prem Nath (IND)	Amrik Singh Gill (ENG)	Kevin Burke (AUS)
Featherweight	Men	Egon Beiler (CAN)	Shivaji Chingle (IND)	Ray Brown (AUS)
Lightweight	Men	Jagrup Singh (IND)	Joey Gilligan (ENG)	Stephen Martin (CAN)
Welterweight	Men	Raghunath Pawar (IND)	Tony Shacklady (ENG)	Gordon Mackay (NZL)
Middleweight	Men	Dave Aspin (NZL)	Satpal Singh (IND)	Taras Hryb (CAN)
Light Heavyweight	Men	Terry Paice (CAN)	Netra Pal Singh (IND)	Maurice Allan (SCO)
Heavyweight	Men	Claude Pilon (CAN)	Dadu Chaugule (IND)	Ian Duncan (SCO)
Super Heavyweight	Men	Bill Benko (CAN)	Bishwanath Singh (IND)	Gary Knight (NZL)

See also

• The Games Affair
• Sir Ron Scott

References

Official History of the Xth British Commonwealth Games edited by A. R. Cant (1974, Christchurch)

External links

• "Christchurch 1974". Commnwealthsport.com. Commonwealth Sport.
• Games 74 – a full-length documentary film of the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch on NZ On Screen

Preceded by Edinburgh

British Commonwealth Games Christchurch X British Commonwealth Games

Succeeded by Edmonton