SIDELINES

Press, 20 September 1980, Page 20

SIDELINES

BARNEY HENDERSON, the industrious flanker from Leeston was has been a Canterbury A rugby regular for this season and last, divulged an intriguing personal fact on the North Island trip last week. His real name, he said, was Brian; the “Barney” bit came from his habit of playing in barns as a youngster. Henderson made his first-class debut for Canterbury Country as far back as 1973, but his appearances were spasmodic until last winter. His present aggregate of games for the province is 38.

MID-CANTERBURY will have to beat its North Island rival—either Waikato or Taranaki—in the national final of the second division rugby final at Ashburton on September 30; a draw will be of no use. The N.Z.R.F.U. has decreed that in the event of a draw, the winner will be the visiting team. This team will then go on to play South Canterbury in the promotion-relegation match at Timaru on October 4.

GEOFF OLD, the Palmerston North policeman who is a new All Black at No. 8, should form a smooth con-bination with Graham Mourie and Mark Donaldson on the forthcoming tour of Wales. All three were members of a powerful New Plymouth Bovs’ High School first XV in the early 19705. As an 18-year-old, Geoff Old locked the Taranaki scrum with “Legs” Eliason in eight games, but in five years for Manawatu he has appeared chiefly in the back

row—where he also played m . selectwo years for New Zealand Juniors. His national seicc tion comes only 14 months after he had.«PparenUy jeopardised his rugby career by kicking Bay lock, lan Castles, on the ground—tor which he suspended for three weeks. KFNT LAMBERT, the All Black prop who .tried, un ' successfully to fashion a rugby league career in Sydney, waTan interested spectator’ rugbv match recently. Apart from his wangled knees he claimed that, at 28, he had never been fitter and would love to pack down in a front row a am. used to prav for scrums, when I played, and mats the most important part of . the game today, J e ® a * d e for his most respected rivals, he nominated Canterbury Bill Bush and Ireland’s Phil Orr. THE WEST INDIES cricket team of last season will certainly be one of the best remembered of this count rvA cricketing visitors. As Bob Vance, chairman of the Cricket Council’s board of control, says of the first test in the annual report: “The West Indies jost t. match, their self-control, and the respect of the . New Zealand public.” There’s a sting, of the sat ’®* ac |”y variety, in the tail, however; the accounts reveal that New Zealand made a profit of $64,000 on the tour, eyen after giving the West Indies $12,000 (and that. didn’ count the $20,500 in allowances parted out to that ungracious mob).

ROY GASKIN, a hefty prop who packed against Murray Davie in the Canterbury-Manawatu rugby left for France a few days later to link up with the Vichy club. He is highly rated as a scrummager by his former All Black colleague from the Queen Elizabeth College Old Boys’ Club, Kent Lambert, and hopes to acquire some French polish which will make him a candidate for hisher honours when he returns to New Zealand. Gaskin has helped make the Manawatu pack an awesome scrummaging unit this season.

CRAIG WICKES, the tearaway Manawatu wing, created a little niece of rugbv history when he appeared as a replacenfent for the New Zealand XV in the last 13mm of its game against Fiji in Auckland last Saturday. He became the first schoolboy to play for the All Blacks; he has just turned 18 and is still a pupil at Palmerston North Bovs’ High School. However, Lui Paewai is still the youngest All Black; he was a few months younger than Wickes when he first represented New Zealand, in 1923. Incidentally, the Manawatu wings this season are an odd contrast; Wickes’s partner is the 1968 All Black, Mick O’Callaghan, who is almost twice his age at 35. :