‘Happiness is a Coast league supporter’

Press, 17 July 1979, Page 36

‘Happiness is a Coast league supporter’

Happiness is many things to many people, but to the loyal band of rugby league players, administrators and supporters on the West Coast victory over Canterbury is more than enough cause for ecstacy.

The 20-15 success of the West Coasters at Wingham Park on Sunday has given them a leg-in in what could be a notable treble. They have taken the first step towards Rothmans Cup honours, and admission to the lucrative Amco Cup tournament in Australia is no longer an impossible mission.

When the young wing, Stephen Low, skipped across for the two tries which completed the West Coast’s most recent upset of a far more highly - rated rival, it mattered not that the park’s sole grandstand remains unroofed. An ill wind blew the roof across the Runanga road

some weeks ago and there is anxiety that it will not be replaced in time for thematch against Britain on August 7. But there is faith in Greymouth and environs that the fates will be as kind as they were on Sunday, when the weather, as well as the result, was balmy. It is not just because one has the right to regard oneself as a West Coaster rather than a New Zealander, or because the afternoon teas at half-time at Wingham Park outstrip any others at this country’s rugby league venues, that a West Coast victory prompts a feeling of well-being. Somehow a seven-hour trip via a frozen Porter’s Pass and the Lewis Pass, supported only by a pie at Reefton, is all worth-while as that great stalwart of the cod on the Coast. Jack Williams, extends an even more heartier handshake than

usual and declares that “the good days are back again.” To his right, the Wesi Coast Rugby League secretary, Alby Bernard, is beaming. It must have been t good gate. Inevitably, the publicans can smile, too. Gordon Smith, the. West Coast scrum-half who lasi

week was chosen for the New Zealand side to meet Britain in the first test at Auckland next Saturday, also has reason to grin, in spite of his black eye. Some time ago Smith’s uncle, Joe McLaughlin — himself a former West Coast representative — had lent Smith 14 sheep to help keep the grass down on his property at Kaiata. McLaughlin later told Smith that if he gained Kiwi selection he

ie could keep the flock. So Smith now has 14 woolly st lawnmowers to add to his j- Kiwi jersey. 1- There was joy, and cpna fidence for the future, that ie Ray Baxendale had his arm free from the plaster that st kept him out of the running ;t for the opening inter-

national. He will be back in the Runanga pack next week-end, available for the second test.

They all pitch in on the Coast, even those from the so-called more developed areas. Earle Pilcher, one of the finest referees in New Zealand, transferred to Greymouth with the New Zealand Railways last year and has taken no time to become swept into the community spirit.

Pilcher has donated a trophy to be at stake when Greymouth High School meets the Marist Brothers High School in the curtainraiser to Britain’s match with West Coast. It will subsequently be open to challenges from any other school XIII.

The inter-college fixture is a notable first for the West Coast, even though pupils of both schools have earned fame on the world’s rugby league fields. Pilcher and a former Kiwi forward, Colin McMaster, have been overwhelmed with candidates as selectors, and co-coaches of the Greymouth team, while a former Canterbury inside back, Wayne O’Donneli. is putting the Marist side through its drills.

O’Donnell is now a teacher at Greymouth Marist. It is still the only high school that offers an area of asphalt for its budding footballers to learn their skills?

Minor lacerations were the norm.

But the West Coasters could not take all of the limelight on the week-end. The Canterbury players spent an extra night “over the hill” because of the adverse road conditions and had an uneventful trip as far as Otira yesterday.

It was in that little township that a Canterbury player, Mark Vincent, made the best “save” of the week end. The hand-brake on the team’s bus failed, and the large vehicle was running downhill towards a wall of" the hotel. Vincent dived through the open door, applied the foot-brake and averted a disaster. The front wheels of the bus finished over a bank just a metre from the hotel, and the Canterbury premier and 17years squads had some unscheduled training lifting it back on to solid ground.

By

JOHN COFFEY