Phil Gifford is an award-winning broadcaster, sports journalist, and outstanding after dinner speaker and Master of Ceremonies.

His book on Alex Wyllie, “Grizz, The Legend”, sold 30,000 copies, making it the biggest selling New Zealand sports book of the 1990’s. He has also written rugby best-sellers on Joe Stanley, Mike Brewer and Peter Fatialofa.

Between 1992 and 2003, his radio breakfast show with Simon Barnett was No. 1 in Canterbury and, at the 1996 New Zealand Radio Awards, was judged the best breakfast show in New Zealand. The show was networked into Dunedin and his daily sports comments were networked to 24 Radio New Zealand stations nation-wide.

In 2003 Phil returned to Auckland to take over the prime time radio talk show for Radio Sports for the Radio Network. This has enabled Phil to cement his position as one of the most listened to radio sports journalists in New Zealand.

As a print sports journalist, Phil’s career has also gained honours. In 1993, he became the first and, to date, only person to be judged the Sports Journalist of the Year for the second time. His experience covers Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, all three Rugby World Cups and every test match played by the All Blacks in New Zealand since 1977.

He has written a weekly column under his own name in the country’s biggest circulation weekend paper, the “Sunday Star Times”, and has been a contributing editor to “North and South” magazine.

He is well known to all New Zealanders and his “feet on the ground” approach to things makes him a real crowd pleaser.