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The Queen’s service medal recipient Don Kirdy, for services to cycling. BY JAIME PITT-MACKAY JAIME.P@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
When it comes to keeping the secret of being awarded a New Year’s honour safe, there is no better way to not spill the beans than by not knowing you had even received one, as was the case with the Queen’s service medal recipient Don Kirdy. Kirdy received the honour for his services to the Tinwald Cycling Club, but it was not until a call asking when he would be available for an interview did he realise he had been awarded it. “I remember opening a letter a while ago saying I had been nominated for one, and not to tell anyone about it,” he said. The humble Kirdy, who has held just about every role within the Tinwald Cycling Club, said he is not the biggest fan of honours lists and was apprehensive about receiving the award, but a quick think changed his mind. “I realised that it was less about me and more about the cycling club and what it represented, and that is the main thing,” he said. Getting his first bike at age 12, Kirdy always knew he wanted to be a cyclist,
but had those plans put on hold after a fire on his family’s Methven farm destroyed his bike. It was not until he moved to Christchurch that he got back on the bike, literally and figuratively, and did not stop being involved in the sport until he stepped down from the Tinwald Cycling Club committee in 2016. In his more than 40 years with the club, he helped to keep the Tinwald Velodrome up and running, ran several different junior and senior social racing events, and helped to develop some of the finest cycling talent to come out of the Ashburton District. “We had noticed there was a real slump in the cadets, or under-17 group, so we really started to promote it, and then it just grew and grew from there,” he said. “Hayden Roulston, Lauren Ellis, Jason Christie, Hamish Wright, the list goes on and they are just some of the young cyclists that we started with and came through.” It was not just the success of those cyclists over the years that has brought Kirdy joy and satisfaction from the job, but seeing the club thrive with the
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amount of cyclists they have. “It is the little things that I got the most enjoyment out of,” he said. “Not everyone can be a champion, but if you don’t have those people that show up and try their hardest, you don’t have a club, and often it is those people that surprise you.” The big moments are not lost on Kirdy however, with moments such as Dan Rafferty collecting multiple gold medals at a national championships, or Hamish Wright getting up with an extra level of sprint in the final 200m of a race sticking in his mind. “It is just those moments you don’t expect and you are left there with your mouth open thinking, wow,” he said. “I could write a book about all the great kids I taught.” The now 81-year-old has seen plenty of cycling, and enjoyed plenty of highs and lows, but just has one biggest wish out his involvement with cycling. “You just hope that they’ve enjoyed their experiences as well,” he said.
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