SOUTHERN CAPE cricket icon, Simon Swigelaar, was honoured with the Eden Sport Council Presidential Award at the Garden Route Badgers launch of the season function, held at the Six Gun Grill Recreation Ground in Oudtshoorn on Wednesday, 21 September.
Swigelaar (88) joined the Union Stars Cricket Club in Oudtshoorn in 1948 at the age of 15 and currently serves as the Honorary Life President of this club. He also represented and served Union Stars as secretary, treasurer, captain, and selector.
Furthermore he represented the SWD senior cricket team in the Dadebye tournament in Port Elizabeth in 1963/64 and officiated as a provincial umpire between 1974 and 1989. He served as the president of SWD Cricket between 1981 and 1991 and was instrumental in the unity process of SWD Cricket in 1991.
Swigelaar was also a General Council member of the United Cricket Board of South Africa between 1991 and 1993 as President of a unified SWD Cricket Board and is currently the Honorary Life President of the SWD Cricket Board. He also served as a member of the Transformation Committee of the Boland Cricket Board between 1999 and 2001. His length of service at provincial level stretches over a period of more than 50 years – as a player, umpire, administrator, and selector. He served as the President of the SWD Cricket Board for more than a decade and has been the Honorary Life President of SWD Cricket since 1995.
These are just a few of the many accolades bestowed upon Swigelaar, and just a handful of roles he has played in cricket.
In 2013 he was elected as a Honorary Life member of Cricket South Africa and also received the Eden Sport Council Presidential Award in 2014.
Simon Swigelaar receives Eden Sport Council’s Presidential Award
Simon Swigelaar (left) receives the Eden Sport Council Presidential Award from Michelle Weyers, member of the SWD Cricket Board of Directors. Photo supplied