When Ajaz Patel became only the third bowler in Test cricket's history to take all 10 wickets in an innings, it was no overnight success, but the result of many years of a long, hard slog.

His remarkable feat was even more dramatic as he was playing against the country of his birth. Ajaz grew up in Mumbai and arrived with his family at Auckland Airport aged eight, and they now live in Blockhouse Bay.

He says, “I grew up in a middle-class Indian family. My Dad [Yunus Patel] worked in refrigeration and my Mum [Nilofer] was a schoolteacher. There’s a big middle-class society in India and parents are constantly working while the kids are thrown into this cycle of study, study, study.”

“Despite the arduous nature of it however, you still had a lot of free time as a kid. With cricket, we would all just play to pass the time. Everyone would go outside and join in a game where you could. Generally, the older kids were in charge, so you’d go in and do some fielding and you’d be lucky if you got an opportunity to bat or bowl.

In 1996, Ajaz’s parents told him that the family was immigrating to NZ for a better life.

“From a cultural aspect we had quite a tight knit family and extended family, so for me I had a lot of cousins who were all pretty close in age and I spent a lot of time with them, so being able to integrate with them and being comfortable with that also flowed into school,” says Ajaz. “My Mum could speak English quite fluently because she was a teacher, but my Dad wasn’t as good.  He went out on a limb to start a business without being able to speak English very well”.
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“Sometimes I don’t feel like I’m doing enough when I look at what they went through”, he says, “but I’ll always be thankful and grateful to them for teaching me those lessons. It helped me be grateful for any opportunity I did get, and at the same time, any adversity that I faced, I realised how small it was compared to what a lot of people are probably facing”.

Ajaz Patel’s start in cricket was as a left arm fast bowler. In his Avondale College school team he was not the spinner – that was Jeet Raval, who went on to play as a batsman for New Zealand. He was the joint top wicket taker at the NZ domestic under 19 tournament (along with Tim Southee). But fast bowling is generally a tall man’s game, and at 5 foot 6, Patel’s future prospects were dim. So he switched to bowling spin.

It took a couple of years work with former NZ spinner Dipak Patel to master the basics, but he eventually got to the point where he was regularly taking wickets for his club. Professional cricket opportunities soon followed, and he secured a spot playing first class cricket for Central Districts. It did not take long before he started picking up wickets regularly. He had 3 years in a row where he took more than 40 wickets. Only 3 other bowlers have managed to do that once in the last 7 years, doing it 3 times was extraordinary.

That led to his international selection. In 2018, he was given a chance to play in a test series in UAE against Pakistan. That is not an easy opposition to start against as a spinner. In the last 10 years, Pakistan have been the hardest team for spinners to dismiss. It is certainly not an ideal place to debut. But he showed his worth, winning the man of the match award in his debut test, and helping New Zealand to beat Pakistan in a series in UAE.

What followed, however, was a sudden crash to earth. His first test on home soil was against Sri Lanka in Wellington. He did manage to get some deliveries to trouble the Sri Lankan batsman, but they managed to see him off, and he bowled 31 overs without picking up a single wicket. Part of the lot of spinners in New Zealand is that the pitches are not often very helpful for them. Spin generally relies on the pitch being dry, and the grass cover being patchy. However, as our large agriculture industry attests to, it rains a lot here, meaning New Zealand is pretty much the best place in the world for growing grass.

Patel’s career has developed accordingly. Despite not having taken a wicket in a home test, he has a world class record in away matches, cumulating in his incredible 10 wickets against India in Mumbai. That puts him in very special company. There have only been two other bowlers take 10 wickets in an innings in the 144 year history of test cricket. Since the start of 2018 (his debut year), only one spin bowler has more wickets at a better average in Asia than Ajaz Patel, and that’s the Indian maestro Ravi Ashwin. Patel is ahead of all the other Asian spinners, in their own conditions.
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His career has certainly come a long way from being a short fast bowler from Avondale College!

Essentially Men
Essentially Men is an Auckland based charitable trust whose mission is to promote positive social change for men and boys through a range of educational programmes such as ‘Men Being Real’ and ‘Pathways to Manhood’.

Men Being Real
Thoreau’s observation that ‘the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation’ resonates with me as I suspect it does for many New Zealand men.

From a young age, our boys are taught not to cry and when things get tough, we are told to ‘harden up’ or ‘get over it’. Our culture rewards competitive behavior in men whilst men talking about their feelings is sometimes viewed as a sign of weakness. These stereotypical behaviors are now recognised as being incredibly damaging to generations of New Zealand men and their families.

The good news is that there is a growing awareness that this traditional model of masculinity is broken, and an increasing number of men are exploring what it is to be a ‘real’ man in today’s society. They are hungry to break their emotional isolation and engage in deeper, more authentic relationships.

But many don’t know where or how to start, and many are fearful of taking that first step. After all, it takes courage for a man to admit that he is struggling, and it is deeply ingrained in our culture that men don’t ask for help. 

I was in this position about 15 years ago. At that time, I was seeing a counsellor who suggested I participate in a Men Being Real weekend workshop.

I was a reluctant attendee; I knew that something was missing in my life, but I did not consider myself ‘broken’ (like I assumed the other men on the weekend would be!)  How wrong I was. The weekend turned out to be a transformative experience. Something powerful occurs when men lay down their metaphorical armor and connect; sharing with each other their stories and experiences.

I was surprised at the common threads that wove through our lives and was relieved to understand that I was not alone in my own fears, struggles and insecurities. This insight is something that cannot be gained from a self-help book or a one-on-one conversation. It simply has to be experienced.
The Men Being Real workshops are run on a quarterly basis and spaces are limited to 28 men per workshop.

Pathways to Manhood
After attending the Men Being Real workshop, I wondered how much better my adult life would have been had I been exposed to this collective wisdom of men when I was an adolescent, starting out my journey to adulthood.

In many cultures, there exists a rite-of-passage process whereby young men are initiated into manhood by older men in the community…and much of this process involves men sitting in circles and sharing stories. This is no longer common in western societies, however we are now seeing a resurgence.

Essentially Men has been running their Pathways to Manhood programme for over 20 years. This is a 5-day residential rite-of-passage for boys between 14 and 16 years of age accompanied by their father (or significant male figure).

This is not your typical ‘father and son’ camp; rather it is a programme designed to help boys gain a clearer understanding of masculinity and what it is to be a good man in today’s society.

At Pathways to Manhood, the boys are immersed in a community of older men who are willing to share real life stories about what it means to be a good man. Through the sharing of stories, modelling and other activities, the boys gain a better understanding of who they are, their possibilities and how they may contribute to their communities in a meaningful way.

The fathers who attend learn how to connect with their sons on a deeper level and how to more effectively stand alongside and support them as they cross the bridge into adulthood.

The next Pathways event will take place at Camp Karanga, West Auckland in the school holidays between the 19th and 23rd April, 2022. Spaces are strictly limited and are already filling so if this sounds interesting to you as a parent, or you know the parents of a teenage boy who will benefit from this experience, please visit Essentially Men’s website: essentiallymen.net or call (09) 376 2386 for further information.

Andrew Yelverton serves on the Essentially Men board of trustees and is a regular volunteer for the Men Being Real and Pathways to Manhood programmes.

Senior Constable Clay Polamalu passed away on Friday 14 January 2022 at his Point Chevalier home, surrounded by family. Clay was 57 years of age.  He had medically retired from the Police in 2020.

He was farewelled at a service at Eden Park on Tuesday 18 January, attended by almost 500 friends, colleagues and family.  He lay at his family home before a service at his birthplace, Maketu, in the Bay of Plenty at the Whakaue marae before burial at the Wharekahu Cemetery on Thursday 20 January 2022.

Clay was from a large Maketu family, and was related to the late Peter Tapsell, former MP and Minister of Police.   He moved to Auckland at 12 years of age and attended Mt Roskill school and Mt Roskill Grammar School.

A talented rugby player, Clay was a member of the Mt Roskill Senior rugby team for a number of years. He also played rugby in the UK on a working holiday as a young man.

After returning from Europe, he joined the NZ Police, working on the front line and in Youth Aid in West Auckland before taking the role of the New Lynn Community Constable in 2012.

The many speakers at Clay’s Auckland service spoke of a loving husband and father, a wise, kind, and passionate man, and a dedicated officer.

He is survived his wife Carolyn, daughter Kayla, and son Joseph, who are both graduates of Victoria University, Wellington.    

He will be sadly missed by his loving family, numerous friends, the New Lynn community, and the Police family.

Any messages of condolence can be sent to warren.strand@police.govt.nz who will pass them on to Clay’s family.
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Warren Strand
New Lynn Police Station

At the time Clay joined the New Lynn Policing team, I was the New Lynn Business Association manager. From day one Clay was there to help us to build a better community, working alongside our large business whanau and locals, all for the betterment of communities.

Logical, open minded, and fair, Clay worked in a collaborative, positive, and genuinely compassionate way. Someone recently described Clay as “the go to man” and he certainly was that - both to me personally and our business team.

Clay could always be depended upon to show up at association events, lending support with his calm logic and a smile. He was an integral part of the team at Christmas events, helping with the crowds around Santa, showing the kids the police car, his laugh always at the ready.

We are deeply saddened by the loss of this wonderful man, but we are thankful to have known him and for all that he did. We also thank Warren Strand and the New Lynn Police Station team for their contribution to a better society.

Our deepest condolences and aroha to his family who grieve the loss of an amazing father, husband, and friend. Our thanks to his whanau and work family for sharing Clay with us.

On a personal level, I am so grateful to have known Clay, to have worked alongside him, learned from him. He was a great man and will be very much missed.

Tracy Mulholland
Auckland Councillor, Whau Ward

Mt Roskill GP Vanisi Prescott, “the TikTok doctor”, knows the personal impact of good role models; she didn’t believe a job in medicine was possible until she saw Samoan GP Debbie Ryan in a white coat.

Then, after Dr Prescott completed her training, Fijian GP Apisalome Talemaitoga gently nudged her into the Pacific chapter of the RNZCGP, where she is now the registrar representative.

Her fellowship will eventually sit alongside the other she achieved – in urgent care medicine. A mother of three, she credits her work ethic to her Tongan mother, who took on multiple jobs to help feed the family.
Dr Prescott, a GP vocationally registered at Stoddard Road Medical Centre, says it’s her turn to not only inspire and support others to follow her into medicine, but to use her position to rail against COVID-19 misinformation.

Again, she credits a role model with prodding her into advocacy: her daughter, Zephaniah, who began creating short dance routines to post on social media site TikTok.

After realising how far their posts reached, especially among young people, she started a TikTok page of her own and began telling her own story. She explained how people still see her as an orderly, cleaner or nurse even since she became a doctor.

“That kind of went viral, and straight away I started thinking that this was a way to share my journey, the uplifting stuff and the struggles I have faced.”

Her earliest struggle was against herself, when poor marks saw her dumped into Onehunga High School’s lowest-ranked learning assistance class.

“I couldn’t stand being in that class, so I worked really hard, but I have to acknowledge the teachers who saw the potential in me.”

Dr Prescott’s page has more than 75,800 followers and has attracted 3 million likes. It has led to invitations to address school assemblies, requests for career advice, and shout-outs whenever she is recognised at vaccination centres.

But there has been a dark side. She has seen more COVID-19 misinformation being spread online among Pacific communities.

And she is now being attacked on the platform over the way her videos debunk outlandish claims, such as the Pfizer vaccine leaving people “magnetised”.

But Dr Prescott says only a small number of people believe she is ridiculing their relatives, or are “clouting” (a social media term for using attacks as self-promotion to attract followers.)

“So, I just keep thinking of the wider picture,” says Dr Prescott. “Most of the people I hear from just want information, so I tell them: ‘Look, you don’t have to believe me. Go talk to your GP, you trust them.’

“But I know this is something I need to do for our people, and to show that Pacific GPs are here to be a voice for our people as well.”
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Reprinted with permission from New Zealand Doctor | Rata Aotearoa.

We congratulate these amazing locals on being recognised for their selfless service to the community, in their field.

To be an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit:

​Ms Jane Tehira, New Lynn, for services to sport.

Ms Jane Tehira is the first woman to represent New Zealand in three different sporting codes, namely basketball, softball and hockey from the 1950s, winning seven national titles.

Ms Tehira captained several teams while with the Akarana Sports Association.

Indoor Basketball
She played for Akarana Indoor Basketball team, who were the North Island Champs from 1951 to 1956 and won the New Zealand Championship in 1954. She played for the New Zealand Indoor Basketball team from 1953 to 1955.
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Hockey
Her hockey career included the Seddon Tech. women’s hockey team and the Auckland Women’s Hockey team from 1952 to 1956 and 1964 to 1966. She played for the Auckland Women’s Hockey team to win the New Zealand Championships for 1953/1954. She played for the national hockey team at the 1956 World Championship in Sydney.

Softball
She played softball for Akarana Softball team, the Auckland Women’s Softball team from 1950 to 1955, and the New Zealand Women’s Softball team in 1954/1955. She was a member of the Akarana Ladies rugby team who won the 1949 ‘Te Rarawa Challenge Cup’.

​Her achievements are notable for overcoming challenges as a young Māori woman in sport during the 1950s in New Zealand. Ms Tehira was inducted into the Māori Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.

To be a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit:

Ms Rochana Sheward, New Lynn For services to the community

Ms Rochana Sheward has worked more than 20 years with not-for-profit organisations, strengthening communities through empowering and developing sustainable projects.

Ms Sheward was the Chief Executive of Maclaren Park Henderson South Community Trust between 2006 and 2017, establishing and developing four key programmes; the Hubwest Facility, Fairfood, The Tipping Point and Studio MPHS.

Fairfood, now an independent charity, is a food rescue operation, partnered with local businesses and trusted donors to ensure surplus food is delivered to frontline charities in Auckland.

The Tipping Point is a bargain store for preloved, salvaged goods adjacent to the Waitakere Refuse Station.

Ms Sheward secured a brand-new facility that is accessible to all in West Auckland in collaboration with Auckland Council to form the Hubwest Facility.

​Studio MPHS is a STEM creative centre designed as an after-school space for the youth of West Auckland.

Ms Sheward has been Chief Executive of Belong Aotearoa since 2017, working to address systemic barriers to settlement by supporting thousands of newcomers, migrants and refugees who have settled in Auckland. ​She works collaboratively with communities, government and other organisations in the non-profit and profit sectors, to innovate and lead initiatives and provided a place to learn skills and gain experience.

To be a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit:

Ms Frian Percy Wadia, New Windsor, for services to disability and education.
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Ms Frian Wadia has championed systemic change and policy improvement in inclusive education and equity through her governance roles.

Ms Wadia has governance experience through several committees and boards and is passionate about leading systemic change to ensure meaningful, dignified lives for all individuals with disabilities. She was the Secretary of Auckland Parents of Deaf Children (APODC) for several years, providing supports, networks and advocacy for deaf children and their families.



​She has been a member of the Chaucer School Board of Trustees since 2016, ensuring policies are inclusive, equitable and representative of staff and children, and fundraised through grants for the build of a new playground.

She has been a Coordinator of Very Important Parents – Equity in Education since 2016, engaging with the Ministry of Education, the Disability Rights Commissioner, Members of Parliament and other agencies to improve education for disabled children. She is a Board Member of the Teaching Council, establishing and chairing the Inclusive Education Advisory Group to the Board, consisting of experts in inclusive education influencing the Teaching Council functions and responsibilities.

​Ms Wadia is a Board member of Parent to Parent, a nationwide not-for-profit organisation supporting families of children with any type of disability or health conditions, and Presiding Member of the Lottery Individuals with Disability distribution committee.

The Queen’s Service Medal was awarded to:

Mrs Vaisamoa Manoa, Avondale, for services to the Tuvalu community.

Mrs Manoa was a founder in 1995 of the Tuvalu Christian Church, the first Tuvalu church in New Zealand. Within the church, she has led the women's fellowship to support decision making within the church. She created Sunday school groups to support Tuvalu children and supported an initiative to establish a youth group.

She has helped maintain the Tuvalu language in the community. She helped found several Funafuti Tuvalu women’s committees to uphold the Tuvalu traditions and customs. She played a key role in establishing networks for Tuvalu women and men to promote and maintain their culture and practices, and helped new families settle to life in New Zealand. She also teaches songs and dances to Funafuti Tuvalu, passing down traditional knowledge.

​She has been a member of Te Uluniu Tuvalu Taumatua Trust since 2003, which provides services to the Tuvalu communities in Auckland. She has taught and shared traditional Tuvalu weaving and taught needle work to young people. Mrs Manoa has appropriated materials available in New Zealand to create traditional items, adapting and modifying Tuvalu cultural practices.​

The iconic Blockhouse Bay Boat Club (BBBC) building that juts into the sea at Blockhouse Bay’s Te Whau point is a favourite resting place for sea birds. Lots of sea birds! The resulting mess and corrosion damage on the roof led to the club taking a different approach to bird proofing by installing nets to prevent birds resting there.
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Blockhouse Bay local, Janice Adamson, says that two months ago concerns were raised about the potential to trap birds when the netting went up on the roof of the BBBC building.

Then, when an oystercatcher became trapped in the nets, it triggered a chain reaction against the club's bird proofing solution. A rescue was launched, and Janice reported that a small team had rescued the oystercatcher from the netting. “It's now in the safe care of BirdCare Aotearoa”, she said. “They pointed out these are a heavily protected species. DOC have been informed. Council have been informed. SPCA have been informed. The netting needs to come down urgently." It was soon revealed that this could be at least the second bird that had been caught in the nets.

Fortunately, the trapped oystercatcher was not seriously injured. Dr Lynne Miller, BirdCare Aotearoa stated "They are such a high-stress bird and don't like being handled at all. Having them in the hospital can result in secondary damage to the bird just through stress, so unless the bird is at death's door, we treat them fast and release them as soon as possible. We can and do use physiotherapy, including cold laser treatment that really speeds up healing. Add Meloxicam - a great NSAID for birds - and they turn corners fast! In this case the bird had a wing strain, so after treating it we made sure it was underway to recovery and pain free before releasing it, and now we just keep our fingers crossed that it makes a full recovery in the wild."

Ironically, BBBC trades on peoples love of birds on its website, which says: