Website History

When the 2003 [Belfast] organising committee started their hosting preparations in 2000 there was no public information available from any source about the Springston Trophy competition. The Rules of the Competition required an outgoing committee to pass to the incoming Committee within TWO MONTHS of the conclusion of the event, a package of general information relevant to the running of the Springston Trophy Competition, but this limited distribution effectively denied information to other organising committees until 10 months prior to their staging of the event. It also meant teams were often using old information.

The Belfast committee chair, Bruce Young, volunteered to develop a website as a way of gathering information for their preparation, & to allow development of a corporate record of the competition which would allow research into the history of the Competition, provide resources for organising committees to use in preparing their bid & their subsequent management of a competition, & which would encourage riders by publishing scores & other team details. Bruce initially used material offered by the competition Guardians, in particular John Holland from Nelson who spent much time locating material for & correcting early drafts. The website was hosted as a 'free site' on Geocities.

The website [still little more than an internet presence] went live in September 2001 [Nelson] with a launch at the Delegates AGM. While thought a 'good idea' by most, the uptake on using a new form of communication was slow with little enthusiasm from the majority.

Nelson failed to provide Hurunui a package of general information as required by the rules.

The website was further developed in time for the 2002 [Hurunui] competition, with emphasis on developing live scoring, where individual scores are posted on the website at the same time as they are being displayed on the official competition scoreboard.

Hurunui provided a minimal package of general information to Belfast.

For 2003 [Belfast] the website provided electronic team forms, copies of documentation on-line, photo spreads of previous cross-country courses & other detail. The website was moved from Google free-hosting to a professional web hosting service & Bruce Young purchased the name springston-trophy.org.nz & developed a new website format. On competition days the web portal was fully integrated into the scoring process & results posted on the public scoreboard were actually provided by a live internet wireless link from the website. Local IT suppliers & Telecom had loaned wireless laptops & free wireless internet access to enable scores to be posted within 30 seconds of being officially approved [although the cross-country venue location was just within wireless coverage & the web portal needed to upload from a convenient gatepost just outside the caravan.]

The website was back in full production for 2006 [Halswell] with excellent support from the ST06 organisers, although chaos reigned at the end when the daughter of one scorer won for Halswell at the last rail..!

PS: After discussions with an NZPCA official the website was restored on 11 March 2007. In the period between January & March the website averaged 30 unique visitors a day, jumping to 60 unique visitors a day on being restored.

17 May 2007. Bruce Young sold the website to the Springston Trophy Guardians. A huge thank you to Bruce for the sterling work he has done for Springston Trophy. The Guardians & hosts of the event recognise this & are pledged to continue & improve the facility for the enjoyment of all users.

14 July 2007. The site has been recently upgraded, with the object of improving ease of access around the site. We hope you will find the new look pleasing and easy to use. Special thanks to Tim Douglass for his sterling work in this regard.

2007-2009 The Organising Committees continued, & expanded the use of the Website, as a channel of all the event communications. Considerable use of Sponsor's logos has become a feature on the Host's pages, adding colour & interest.
In 2008 the Webmaster considered running Live Scoring during the Competition, but after asking for feedback, was not proceeded with, due to lack of interest.

2010 Peter Goldsmith is the webmaster, assisted by Brent Snellex.