1974 British Commonwealth Games

10th British Commonwealth Games
Host city	Christchurch, New Zealand
Nations participating	38
Athletes participating	1276
Events	121 events in 10 sports
Opening ceremony	24 January
Closing ceremony	2 February
Officially opened by	Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Main Stadium	QEII Park

The 1974 British Commonwealth Games 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 Games were 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 and one of the most modern in the world when finished.^{[citation needed]} The Athletics Stadium and fully covered Olympic standard pool, diving tank, and practise pools were all on the one site. The theme song was "Join Together", sung by Steven Allen. The 1974 Christchurch Games still eclipeses Auckland's 1990 games in the New Zealand mindset as the nation's favorite international multi-sport hosted event. Even more so now that the popular QEII Park was severely damaged beyond viable repair by a devastating earthquake that destroyed much of the city in February 2011.

1974 Commonwealth Games Bidding Results
City	Round 1
Christchurch	36
Melbourne	2

Security

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

Logo

The logo was the second (after Edinburgh) to be protected and trademarked,^[1][2] and set a design benchmark which was echoed in the logos of the next five games.^[3]

In recent years the logo has been regarded as one of New Zealand's iconic symbols, being reproduced on clothing and elsewhere.^[4][5]

Television

The Games were also an important milestone in New Zealand television, marking the introduction of colour television. Unfortunately, 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 a fine documented history of the Christchurch games (and the many events) in full colour. This has since been restored and is available on DVD.

Royal Family

The Games were the last time that the entire immediate British Royal Family (Elizabeth II, her husband and children) visited New Zealand as a group. The Royal Yacht "HMY Britannia" was the royal residence during the games.

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony was held in the mid afternoon, with Prince Phillip as the attending royal. A fanfare announced the guard of honour by the New Zealand Defence Forces, inspected by His Royal Highness. 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. 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 Commonwealth Games, entered the stadium with the Queen's Baton. It was presented to Prince Phillip 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.

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, 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.

Economic aspects

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, stationary, and above all uniforms (which wearers only borrowed, but could buy outright as a memento thus helping keep costs down).

This was also the first time a city had asked the Games Federation to allow commercial advertising. This was voted down as the Federation feared 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 sedans that would be sold off after the games. 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" wasn't anywhere near enough.The City of Christchurch was left with a financial facilities management debt (QEII Park) of what would be in today's (2008) amount of NZ$100million. 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 were fully commercialised.

Medals by country

Participating countries

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Australia	29	28	25	82
2	England	28	31	21	80
3	Canada	25	19	18	62
4	New Zealand	9	8	18	35
5	Kenya	7	2	9	18
6	India	4	8	3	15
7	Scotland	3	5	11	19
8	Nigeria	3	3	4	10
9	Northern Ireland	3	1	2	6
10	Uganda	2	4	3	9
11	Jamaica	2	1	0	3
12	Wales	1	5	4	10
13	Ghana	1	3	5	9
14	Zambia	1	1	1	3
15	Malaysia	1	0	3	4
16	Tanzania	1	0	1	2
17	Saint Vincent	1	0	0	1
18	Trinidad and Tobago	0	1	1	2
	Western Samoa	0	1	1	2*
20	Singapore	0	0	1	1
	Swaziland	0	0	1	1*
Total		121	121	132	374

• * = First medal in the British Commonwealth Games.

Medals by event

Athletics

Badminton

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 Song Chok Soon
Women's Singles	Women	Gillian Gilks (Perrin)		Margaret Beck		Sylvia Meow Eng Ng
Women's Doubles	Women	Margaret Beck & Gillian Gilks (Perrin)		Margaret Boxall & Sue Whetnall		Rosalind Singha Ang & Sylvia Meow Eng Ng
Mixed Doubles	Mixed	Derek Talbot & Gillian Gilks (Perrin)		Paul Whetnall & Nora Gardner		Elliot Stuart & Sue Whetnall

Bowls

Event		Gold		Silver		Bronze
Singles	Men	David Bryant		Clive White		Willie Wood
Pairs	Men	John Christie & Alex McIntosh		John Evans & Peter Line		Bob McDonald & Phil Skoglund
Fours	Men	David Baldwin, Kerry Clark, Gordon Jolly and John Somerville		Australia		Scotland

Boxing

Event		Gold		Silver		Bronze
Light Flyweight	Men	Stephen Muchoki		James Odwori		Syed 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	Edward Ndukwu		Shadrack Odhiambo		Dale Andersen
						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
						Leslie Rackley
Light Heavyweight	Men	Billy 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, Richard Evans, Ian Hallam & Willi Moore	00:04:41	Murray Hall, Kevin Nichols, Garry Reardon & Gary Sutton	00:04:49	Paul Brydon, René Hyde, 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'Neill		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

Shooting

Pistol

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

Rifle

Event		Gold		Silver		Bronze
Small Bore Rifle	Men/Open	Yvonne Gowland	594	Bill Watkins	591	Alister Allan	591
Full Bore Rifle	Men/Open	Maurice 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

Event		Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 Metres Freestyle	Men	Mike Wenden	52.73	Bruce Robertson	53.78	Brian Phillips	54.11
200 Metres Freestyle	Men	Steve Badger	00:01:57	Bruce Robertson	00:01:57	Mike Wenden	00:01:58
400 Metres Freestyle	Men	John Kulasalu	00:04:01	Brad Cooper	00:04:02	Steve Badger	00:04:04
1500 Metres Freestyle	Men	Steve Holland	00:15:35	Mark Treffers	00:16:00	Steve Badger	00:16:22
100 Metres Backstroke	Men	Mark Tonelli	59.65	Steve Pickell	59.88	Brad Cooper	00:01:00
200 Metres Backstroke	Men	Brad Cooper	00:02:06	Mark Tonelli	00:02:09	Robert Williams	00:02:10
100 Metres Breaststroke	Men	David Leigh	00:01:07	David Wilkie	00:01:07	Paul Naisby	00:01:09
200 Metres Breaststroke	Men	David Wilkie	00:02:24	David Leigh	00:02:25	Paul Naisby	00:02:27
100 Metres Butterfly	Men	Neil Rogers	56.58	Byron MacDonald	56.83	Bruce Robertson	56.84
200 Metres Butterfly	Men	Brian Brinkley	00:02:05	Ross Seymour	00:02:07	John Coutts	00:02:07
200 Metres Individual Medley	Men	David Wilkie	00:02:10	Brian Brinkley	00:02:13	Gary MacDonald	00:02:13
400 Metres Individual Medley	Men	Mark Treffers	00:04:36	Brian Brinkley	00:04:41	Ray Terrell	00:04:43
4 × 100 Metres Freestyle Relay	Men	Canada	00:03:34	Australia	00:03:34	England	00:03:38
4 × 200 Metres Freestyle Relay	Men	Australia	00:07:50	England	00:07:53	Canada	00:07:53
4 × 100 Metres Medley Relay	Men	Canada	00:03:53	Australia	00:03:56	England	00:04:00

Diving

Event		Gold		Silver		Bronze
3 Metres Springboard Diving	Men	Don Wagstaff	531.54	Scott Cranham	509.61	Trevor Simpson	489.69
10 Metres Highboard [Platform] Diving	Men	Don Wagstaff	490.74	Andrew Jackomos	472.47	Scott Cranham	460.98

Swimming

Event		Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 Metres Freestyle	Women	Sonya Gray	59.13	Gail Amundrud	59.36	Judy Wright	59.46
200 Metres Freestyle	Women	Sonya Gray	00:02:04	Jenny Turrall	00:02:07	Gail Amundrud	00:02:07
400 Metres Freestyle	Women	Jenny Turrall	00:04:22	Wendy Quirk	00:04:23	Jaynie Parkhouse	00:04:23
800 Metres Freestyle	Women	Jaynie Parkhouse	00:08:58	Jenny Turrall	00:08:59	Rosemary Milgate	00:08:59
100 Metres Backstroke	Women	Wendy Cook	00:01:06	Donna Gurr	00:01:07	Linda Young	00:01:08
200 Metres Backstroke	Women	Wendy Cook	00:02:20	Sandra Yost	00:02:22	Donna Gurr	00:02:24
100 Metres Breaststroke	Women	Christine Gaskell	00:01:16	Marion Stuart	00:01:17	Sandra Dickie	00:01:17
200 Metres Breaststroke	Women	Pat Beavan	00:02:43	Beverley Whitfield	00:02:44	Allison Smith	00:02:45
100 Metres Butterfly	Women	Patti Stenhouse	00:01:05	Kim Wickham	00:01:06	Sandra Yost	00:01:06
200 Metres Butterfly	Women	Sandra Yost	00:02:21	Patti Stenhouse	00:02:21	Gail Neall	00:02:22
200 Metres Individual Medley	Women	Leslie Cliff	00:02:24	Becky Smith	00:02:25	Susan Hunter	00:02:26
400 Metres Individual Medley	Women	Leslie Cliff	00:05:01	Becky Smith	00:05:04	Susan Hunter	00:05:07
4 × 100 Metres Freestyle Relay	Women	Canada	00:03:57	Australia	00:04:02	England	00:04:06
4 × 100 Metres Medley Relay	Women	Canada	00:04:25	Australia	00:04:31	Scotland	00:04:32

Diving

Event		Gold		Silver		Bronze
3 Metres Springboard Diving	Women	Cindy Shatto	430.88	Beverley Boys	426.93	Teri York	413.83
10 Metres Highboard [Platform] Diving	Women	Beverley Boys	361.95	Beverley Williams	352.14	Madeleine Barnett	339.3

Weightlifting

Wrestling

Footnotes

References

Official History of the Xth British Commonwealth Games edited by A. R. Cant (2004, Christchurch)

External links

• Commonwealth Games Official Site
• 1974 Games on Australian Commonwealth Games official website
• Games 74 - a full length documentary film of the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch on NZ On Screen