"While this award comes to me it is not without the support of many people," Wiburd said.

"You don't achieve things without support and help from a large number of people. This award stands for other people assisting me."

This typifies Wiburd and is the reason why so many people, not just Bathurst residents, were saddened to hear the news that he died at the Bathurst Base Hospital on Monday morning aged 81.

He was a man that did so much to promote country sport ? cricket and rugby union in particular ? yet he never sought praise or reward for his work.

Having grown up on the South Coast then working at a country paper before I moved to Bathurst, I was well aware of the schoolboys rugby union Wiburd Shield competition. It was fiercely contested and a prestigious competition.

I can remember when I first met Wiburd ? the man who had instigated this competition I had grown up watching. I was delighted to meet a legend, but it was only later that I came to realise the full extent of his involvement in promoting country school sporting talents.

He became the Western Associated Schools Sports Association secretary in 1960 and he played a crucial role in forming the NSW Country Schools Rugby Union Association in 1976. He was secretary of that organisation until five years ago.

He became the Country Schools rugby convener and in 1991 took on the presidency of the Country Schools Cricket Association.

It was Wiburd who came up with the idea for and then ran the Wiburd Shield competition from 1980 and in 1995 he instigated the Yeates and Fester Shields so that all students, from Year 7 to Year 12, were catered for.

"Country kids were not getting a fair go," Wiburd said when asked why he took on his mission of promoting schoolboy rugby and cricket.

"The greatest number of [schoolboys] get joy and achievement out of sport."

But Wiburd did more than run competitions and work on state bodies, he coached as well with students from Saint Stanislaus' College, All Saints' College and The Scots School benefiting from his knowledge.

Even when Wiburd was well into his 70s he related well with younger people and he could easily tell you details of their performances.

Over the last month as Wiburd's health declined he could not be kept away from sport. He sat in a car and watched the All Saints' first XI in action during a division two Independent Sporting Association cricket match.

"I think they're [the younger generation] are wonderful ? I don't think I ever found a generation gap," Wiburd said in 1996 and that certainly rang true up until his final days.

The respect went both ways as students at Saint Stanislaus' College singing "Our Don Wiburd" to the tune of "Our Don Bradman" attests to.

Comments left on our newspaper's website further back that up with the word "gentleman" appearing frequently. Messages from people wishing to acknowledge what a true legend Wiburd was have come from residents of not only Bathurst and across Australia, but New Zealand and Ireland as well.

"A perfect gentleman, so lovely to hear from him each year checking how the gap students he organised with our school in Ireland were doing," Mary from Ireland said.

I am sure more comments will be posted in the coming days and that Wiburd's funeral on Monday will be very well attended.

I consider it an honour to have met the man and I know a whole host of others feel the same.