48
COROMANDEL LIFE
SPRING 2013
excerpt FROM THE 1988
TAIRUA RUGBY & SPORTS CLUB’S
CENTENNIAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME
Tairua rugby in the
1930s and 1940s
by Alan Beach
1935 promised to be a disappointing season for Tairua rugby, after a
very successful season in 1934. Many of our top players seemed to have
moved on, and we were struggling to field a team. So much so, that after
my 14th birthday when Tairua were due to play Mercury Bay, two players
came up to our old homestead to ask my father if he would allow me to
play to make up a team. As I had left school when I was 12, I imagined I
was quite grown up and was overjoyed when dad gave me the OK. I still
remember the colours which were maroon jersey with white collar, black
shorts and black socks with maroon top.
We were soundly beaten, but I don’t think I disgraced myself. As the
captain that day (Chuck Thompson) said to me as we were changing after
the game, “Keep your gear ready Tuck” (as I was nicknamed), “you will be
playing against United (Coroglen and Whenuakite) on Saturday”. Because
of my size I suppose I was a natural for the halfback position.
Against United, I was up against a forward who had played outstandingly
for Tairua some years previously, but had then moved to Whenuakite.
Herbert Hinds, or Rugger as we all knew him. He was a halfback’s
nightmare, and the fact that I was a novice didn’t spare me from some
very vigorous harassment. I learned a lot from Rugger and played against
him when we came back to Tairua after World War 2.
Whangamata, with the forestry now in full swing, were fielding a team of
very large players, and the light Tairua players had to be very fit to stay
with them.
1940 saw us right back in the doldrums again, with many of the
boys joining the army and going overseas. The other teams fared no
better, and that year I joined United to field a team. I also played for
Whangamata several times that year. I was in camp myself by the time
the 1941 season came around, and I didn’t return until 1946.
We had a very light team that year, and with experienced players like
Allen Quigg and Derek Cory-Wright, we became a well-knit side.
Our team remained stable over the next two years. Allen Quigg had by
Alan Beach, in white sling, is shown with other rugby mates. Date
unknown, probably pre-WWII. Alan, son of Charlie Beach, started
playing for the team at age of 14.
Alan with brother-in-law
Roy Quigg from Hikuai
(married to sister Melva)
and brother Pat Beach.
Photo taken mid 1940s
after return from the war.
Note the white band
stitched on the jersies. Bill
Darrah tells “how Tairua
got its white strips” in an
interview on p16 of 2012
Spring issue.
See
Bill Beach is first player front row left side,
Pat Beach first player front row right side, and Alan is in the centre.
Celebrating 125 years of
RUGBY UNION FOOTBALL
ON THE COROMANDEL
now dropped out and was coaching us with quite some success. In fact,
we were looked on as “the team to beat”.
1948 saw me breaking my jaw in the annual Maori versus Pakeha game.
The Pakehas were quite rough in those days. I doubt if they had heard of
the Treaty of Waitangi.
Recollections -
* tairua
a big thanks...
to everyone who helped us share the colourful history of
Tairua Rugby with our readers over the past year including
Bill Darrah, Jan Collier (niece of Alan Beach), Neil & Annette
Taylor, Phil Mason, Lance Easton, Claire Fitzjames, Sam
Taylor, Clem McCall and the Tairua Rugby Club for telling
their stories and sharing photos, newspaper clippings
and memoribilia. Look in the 2012 Spring issue at
r more history about one of the oldest
teams in New Zealand, as well as Tairua’s 125th jubilee
celebration on Labour Weekend. See next page for details.
