Loyal Marist baggageman not disheartened by defeat

Press, 15 August 1984, Page 48

Loyal Marist baggageman not disheartened by defeat

By

KEVIN McMENAMIN

The Marist senior rugby side will be looking for a new coach, or coaches, next winter. Des Hansen and Vance Stewart, who have taken the side in partnership for the last five years, have both made known their intention to retire.

However, the side will not be without one familiar face at the helm. For 21 years now Eric King has served as baggageman and general factotum, and if wanted, he says, he will be available again next year.

Some years ago Mr King said that he would stay with the side until it won the senior championship, but after three grand final losses in four years, the most recent last Sunday, he could be excused for abridging this slightly. Y ‘l will stay for as long as I am wanted,” he said after Sunday’s game.

In the 21 years that he has been associated with the side Mr King has missed only three games. The first time he was in hospital, the second time he was sick and stayed at home for a doctor’s call that never eventu-

ated, and the third occasion he had to attend a wedding out of Christchurch.

In his younger days, Mr King was associated with the old Technical club, and he is an old boy of the Christchurch Technical College. However, he liked the Marist style of rugby and this was what persuaded him to join the club. What makes Mr King’s loyalty to Marist even more remarkable is that he has never driven a car. A bicycle is his main mode of transport, and each Saturday he travels to Marist’s game either by bus, or through someone picking him up — usually a combination of both.

He actually lives in New Brighton (and it was small comfort that New Brighton should beat Marist in Sunday’s grand final) and he follows a familiar path home each Saturday night.

He leaves the Marist rooms in Mandeville Street at a precise moment, in order to catch a bus which comes down Riccarton

Road for the Square and then after a short wait he catches another bus to New Brighton. Understandably there were some long faces in the Marist camp after the team had failed to win Sunday’s game. But amidst the general despondency there was Eric King, traces still of the smile he invariably wears, collecting the gear and making sure the players all got their personal effects returned.

One day, perhaps, Marist will win the senior title, and, hopefully, Mr King will be around to share in the excitement. His reminder to some of the Marist players on Sunday that “there is always another year” showed that he,, for one, has not lost faith in the team.