was presented the Ben Richter Award for "the physically handicapped person to have made the best effort to rehabilitate himself or herself". Australia won the Royal Perth Hospital Paraplegic Unit Trophy for the winning country. Singapore and Northern Ireland were awarded the Special Merit Award; both countries failed to win a medal. Rhodesia won the Best Team Performance, with 15 gold, 3 silver and 5 bronze medals with four team members. Dick Thompson from England and Kevin Cunningham won the Australian Paraplegic Council Trophy for winning pentathlon events. George Mann from Rhodesia won the trophy for the performance based on degree of physical disability. This trophy was donated by World Rehabilitation Fund in New York. The Australian Basketball team won the Gordon Gooch Trophy. Gooch was the games Patron. Participant reflections and legacy Reflections from athletes and officials provide an insight into the value of this inaugural event. Bill Mather-Brown, an Australian athlete, said "The 1962 Games was the first time I had been asked for an autograph. We regarded it as a compliment. We were mobbed, especially at the swimming pool. Sometimes we were not sure people really wanted our signature or were just being polite and wanted us to feel good". John Buck, an English athlete, said this about his reason for attending the games: "I had been in Perth during the war years serving as an engine room artificer on H.M. submarine Thule and had the misfortune to pick up one of those endearing Australian bugs which left me in a rather poor state of health (e.g. a paraplegic)". He wanted to go back to Perth to see the Stitt family who looked after him in Perth. Bill Elson, an English support official, commented on the large swimming crowds " For many, this must have been a first introduction to swimming by the paralysed, and I felt that many were wondering whether paralysed persons could swim 50 metres – how many would fail to make the distance and it was all just a stunt to enlist their sympathies and raise money". The crowd's thunderous applause made the official more comfortable about the event. Gaynor Harry, an athlete from Wales, wrote "Then was the moment to think of the fabulous organization that went into the games, from start to finish there wasn't a hitch. If we needed a postage stamp, that was easy. If licking the back of