Player drowns retrieving ball

Press, 3 April 1989, Page 1

Player drowns retrieving ball

By

SUZANNE KEEN

A reserve player for a Linwood rugby league team drowned in the Kaiapoi River on Saturday while trying to retrieve the ball. He was COLIN SIMON LIMMER, aged 20, of Christchurch.

The accident occurred about 3.15 p.m. during a Linwood versus Kaiapoi match at Murphy Park. A team-mate of Mr Limmer’s, Dennis Davern, who was off the field with an injury, said the ball had gone through the trees and into the water after a Linwood player had kicked a goal.

’ Play continued with another ball while Mr Limmer went to fetch the one which was lost.

“He was gone for quite a while and then Murray (the team coach) said I had better go and see what had happened to him,” said Mr Davern. They noticed that a crowd had gathered near the river, but assumed someone had

fallen off a motor-cycle while “clowning around” on the opposite side. “When we got over there someone said there was a kid in the water, but it wasn’t a kid, it was Colin,” said Mr Davern.

Three people who had been walking along the river bank tried to rescue him, but he slipped from their grasp and sank from sight in the murky water.

Mr Davern believes Mr Limmer had been gone about 20 minutes before he went to look for him. His team-mates had assumed he was having difficulty finding the ball.

Constable Graham Brown, of the Kaiapoi police, said Mr Limmer had entered the river on a bend, where it was about 40m wide. Although it was flowing gently, there was a hole about 6m deep in the middle.

Constable Brown said Mr Limmer was an asthmatic.