Bay of Plenty MP Simon Bridges vs. Dame Susan Devoy

Campaign Overview

It’s not everyday that a national sporting tournament is played out in the centre of a shopping mall. However, shoppers at Bayfair Shopping Centre in Mount Maunganui found themselves centre court during August 2009 when a massive glass court was erected in the mall to host the A1 Homes NZ Women’s Open. Around 18,000 spectators descended on the mall to witness a piece of the fast-paced action.

Having seen examples of the glass courts erected overseas, Bayfair and Bay of Plenty Sport decided it would be a great way to bring the sport to the masses, staging the event in the centre of the mall in full public view – from all corners!

It was also the first time in 13 years a NZ Women’s Open tournament had been played in New Zealand, another great story.

The AC team focused on profiling Bayfair’s innovative approach – a NZ first – hosting the tournament in the centre as well as celebrating this milestone event with the local community and high-profile Tauranga personalities.

Results

What better way to commemorate this event than with the darling of New Zealand squash and one of our most successful international female squash players of all time – Dame Susan Devoy! Dame Susan was invited to play a match against the Bay of Plenty’s rookie MP Simon Bridges – a challenge which she accepted without reservation.

This event captured the attention of the public, attracting around 100 onlookers and media keen to see their local MP take on the sporting legend. Despite a considerable absence from the court and retirement from professional squash, Dame Susan showed Simon a thing or two about the game. Needless to say, Simon was an excellent sport!

The event made national TV, when Breakfast took the opportunity to show coverage of the match on the politician’s regular young gun segment that week. The Breakfast hosts had quite a chuckle, at Simon’s expense, about his technique and bravado in challenging such a sporting great.

The NZ Herald, Bay of Plenty Times, Sunlive and Classic Hits Tauranga also covered the event, relishing the opportunity to see their local MP put himself up for the challenge.

The rather unique setting for the national squash tournament was the focus of a piece on prime-time current affairs show Campbell Live. The article titled ‘Squash open gives new meaning to window shopping,’ looked at the angle of reinvigorating public interest in the sport and the innovative approach of taking it to the people in a glass court in the centre Bayfair. Journalist Emma Keeling described the court as ‘oasis for sport’s lovers in a desert of shopping’

With over 17 years’ experience in investment markets, and an interim role as chief for six months in 2007, Lynn has always been capable of doing the job. Three years on, he is better equipped to lead and to build on Tyndall’s excellent track record.

Making headlines already, Lynn appeared on 2 February on TVNZ’s NZI Business to share his thoughts with Corin Dann on the financial year ahead. The self-confessed maths-lover predicts 2010 will be pivotal in determining how investment markets will react over the next five years, and expects central banks to take the middle ground to help ease the pressure.

No rest for Lynn, he recently spoke to Goodreturns’ Jenha White regarding the future of Tyndall Investment for an article distributed on 5 February; Tyndall Looking To Add More Retail.

Peter’s appointment to Managing Director was also mentioned in New Zealand Asset magazine.  Find out more about Peter Lynn and his journey to the hot seat at Tyndall Investment in the business section of the New Zealand Herald , on goodreturns.co.nz and in the March Issue of NZ Management magazine talking to Reg Birchfield about his new job.

About Tyndall New Zealand

Tyndall, part of ASX-listed Suncorp-Metway Ltd, manages over $3.6 billion in investments for a range of clients, covering KiwiSaver schemes, retail investors, corporates, superannuation schemes, charities and group companies Vero, Asteron and Guardian Trust.