{"id":167388,"date":"2017-01-19T00:28:17","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T14:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=167388"},"modified":"2020-09-25T16:13:47","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T06:13:47","slug":"roys-our-boy-in-blackbutt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2017\/01\/19\/roys-our-boy-in-blackbutt\/","title":{"rendered":"Roy’s Our Boy In Blackbutt"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington and tennis great Roy Emerson inspect the bronze statue for the first time after they officially unveiled it<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Roy Emerson and his wife Joy, left, chat with Deb Frecklington in front of the statue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

January 19, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

Retired tennis great – and former Blackbutt boy – Roy Emerson has been hailed as the best sportsman the South Burnett has ever produced.<\/p>\n

Big words indeed. But the praise, by former South Burnett mayor Wayne Kratzmann, sparked a round of applause on Wednesday from the large crowd gathered for the official unveiling of a bronze statue of the tennis champ.<\/p>\n

The monument, organised by the Blackbutt & District Tourism & Heritage Association (BDTHA), has been erected on a plinth at the rear of the Roy Emerson Museum (Nukku Nook) at the head of the rail trail in Blackbutt.<\/p>\n

The project was driven by BDTHA member Hazel Christie-Small who has been organising fundraising events and writing funding applications for more than 12 months.<\/p>\n

Roy Emerson, 80, and his wife Joy, as well as other former champions – household names to Australian tennis fans – were present for the official unveiling.<\/p>\n

Guest speakers included Ashley Cooper (the world No 1 amateur player in 1957-58), Wendy Turnbull (who won nine Grand Slam titles) and, of course, Roy himself.<\/p>\n

Their tennis stories kept the big crowd laughing.<\/p>\n

Messages of support were also read out, including one from writer and raconteur Hugh Lunn who noted that recognition of Roy Emerson was long overdue.<\/p>\n

However, Roy wasn’t so sure, commenting that there were more deserving people \u00a0… “but I’ll take it!”<\/p>\n

“I never thought when I was riding Tidbits (as a child) and gathering up the cows in Blackbutt that this would happen,” he said.<\/p>\n

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