Tuesday, October 30, 2012

The First Hautapu Rugby Team


Amongst my Great Grandfathers photographs was a wonderful photo ( on silver I believe) of the 1903 Hautapu Rugby Team – part of the Cambridge Union. He was part of this team ( played  five eighths) .
Of course he was very old as long as I knew him  so its very hard to think of him playing any sport let alone rugby but apparently he was quite a good player from what Ive been led to understand
I did a layout using the photo – ( well a scan of the photo and not a very good one because the scan reflected off the silver in the photo ) The photo itself is in pretty good condition given its 109 year life.


Here is the journalling ( information I got from the Hautapu rugby club website ) and names from the back of the photograph.
Boom times in the Waikato at the beginning of the 20th century meant an increase in population and enough good footballers to form a Union of Cambridge teams. One of those was Hautapu. The first meeting of the team in 1903 was in the bacon curing room at the Hautapu Dairy Factory .
The original colours were black and red. Jerseys were collarless , with leather bound shoulders. The team practiced on a field adjacent to the railway station. Goal posts were erected and a Jack Cowling took the role of player coach. . Apparently the team rarely won, but “always came up smiling” The photo above is the very first Cambridge Union Hautapu team 1903.
Names as per back of photo:
Back row: Jack Russell , Roy Cricket, Jack Cowling, Arthur Kelly, Gibb Watt, Charlie Shaw, Tui Rangi, Ned Hall
Front row: Arthur Healy, Cecil Ashwin, Phil Goodwin, Durhum Ashwin , Humphrey Russell ,Jack Milne ,George Beer.
 
My Great Grandfather Phillip Goodwin ( or Phil as he must have been known of then) is in the front row to the left of the man with the dog – no mention is made of the name of the dog!!

1 comment:

  1. Kia Ora!
    My name is Luke and my grandfather is
    Tui Cecil Rangi l. He is from Maungatautari Marae and his family grew up on the farm in Pukemoremore.
    I was wanting to know if I may be able to obtain a copy of this photo as it is his father and namesake pictured together.
    If it is at all possible, would you kindly contact me via email at: lukesao08@gmail.com
    Thank you for you time..

    ReplyDelete