C.B.H.S. chess set-back

Press, 14 August 1980, Page 30

C.B.H.S. chess set-back

Canterbury will not have the services of its All Black hooker, John Black, again this season.

Black is still having problems with the back injury that forced him to miss the Fijian section of the recent All Black tour to Australia and Fiji and he has decided to abandon his attempts to play again this winter. However, Black, who is 29, has nothoughts of. retirement. “If my back is okay I will certainly be playing again next year,” he said yesterday. The injury actually dates

back to Black’s visit to France with the All Blacks in 1977, although it gave him little trouble until the third test in Australia last month.

For a start he made a good recovery and came close to playing for his club side, University A, in last Saturday’s C.S.B. Trophy final. He decided to wait another week and make himself available for Canterbury’s game against Fiji on Saturday. However, a slight mishap at work on Tuesday convinced him otherwise. He was stepping up to a platform when he felt pain in his back. -

“I knew then that I was just kidding myself in thinking I could get through a game and in fairness to the coaches and the other hookers it is better that I forget about playing again this season,” said Black. In any event he would not have been available. for the All . Black tour to Wales in October, for the reason that his wife is expecting a baby at this time. ' “I would like to be here this'time,” said Black, who was on tour in Wales with the All Blacks when the couple had a son in 1978.