GREAT MOMENTS IN CANTERBURY SPORT CYCLING

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30953, 8 January 1966, Page 11

GREAT MOMENTS IN CANTERBURY SPORT CYCLING

'THE fabulous 23-year career of Phil O’Shea has few parallels in New Zealand sport for consistent, high-class performances over a long period. Certainly it is unmatched in New Zealand cycling. O’Shea’s racing career was astonishing for, between 1909 and 1932, he won titles in every race for quarter of a mile to 165 miles—on both track and road —won three times in succession the blue riband of Australasian cycling, the Whamambool to Melbourne event: and won every New Zealand road and track title he could. In his career, O’Shea beat Australian and American sprint champions on the track; he left in his dust the best road cyclists in the South Pacific.

But probably his greatest and bravest performance in a career studded with examples of courage was in that great classic, the Timaru-to-Christchurch. The event was dominated by O’Shea from 1909 when, in his first year of cycling, he was first off 45 minutes. The following year, he was nowhere but in 1911, had fastest time. In 1912, he punctured at Chertsey and ripped a tyre—nowhere again.

Then followed a series of unbeatable performances. O’Shea had fastest time in 1913, 1914 1921 (the next time the race was held) and 1922. He even won in 1913 off the scratch mark. All this time, O'Shea fame was spreading. In 1921 and 1922, he won fastest time in the Warnambool-to-Mel-bourne and in 1923, the fastest man home in the Timaru-to-Christchurch was to be the official New Zealand representative in the Australasian classic. That was O’Shea's great aim and he waited anxiously for September 29, 1923 and the Timaru-to-Christchurch, then a distance of 112 miles. But the week before, he was confined to bed with influenza. His temperature soared to 103 degrees, and O’Shea was dangerously ill. The lure was there, though, and O’Shea, who was so reliable when he entered a race that it was said “his word was as good as a stamped agreement,” crawled out of bed and to Timaru.

The day of the race dawned as unpleasant as it could be for the long journey—a Canterbury nor’wester, stifling heat and an energy-sapping head wind to Christchurch. O’Shea felt better before

the race. He appeared to be suffering few effects from his illness; his chances were brighter. At 9.57 am, 52 minutes after the first rider left the Hydro Grand Hotel. Timaru, O’Shea set off on the long trek with the other two scratch men, P. Hill and D. Wright. They kept level to Ashburton but even before they reached Temuka, O’Shea was in agony. His recovery had been only superficial and the rough tracks

that passed for roads were draining an already weak frame.

O’Shea was 33, approaching 34. He had arrived back from the Great War overweight, nervy and somewhat burnt-out. He had returned to New Zealand to recuperate. Now he was racing in the glamour cycling event of the South Island, racing into the teeth of a nor’wester, and racing against men who left nearly an hour earlier, When he should have been in a hospital bed.

This report on Phil O’Shea’s epic victory in the 1923 Timaru-Christ-church cycling classic is the third in a series of eight articles on great moments in Canterbury sport.

O’Shea showed guts that day.

Peter Hill, himself a rider good enough to win the Warnambool-Melbourne the year before, stayed with the short but sturdy O’Shea until Rakaia. Then O’Shea inched ahead. He passed Dunsandel two minutes ahead of Hill and now only 26 minutes behind the eventual winner, H. G. Watson, of Marshlands. He gritted his teeth, not so much in the figurative -sense? but to stop the nausea that swept him frequently. O’Shea battled on, his face drained of all colour, his legs weakening but his heart as big as ever —and always the incentive of the free trip to Australia was in his thoughts. At Canterbury Park racecourse, a crowd of 3000 was waiting to see the finish and witnessed a very fine sprint by Watson for him to win by a quarter of a mile. Twelve places later, O’Shea arrived, too utterly exhausted to climb off his bicycle; he had to fall off.

A crowd of supporters rushed forward and carried him away, shoulder-high, in triumph. But no-one knew, not even those who saw him so soon after the race, what agony O’Shea had been in. “The Press” simply recorded that “Phil. O’Shea, of Christchurch, won the championship for the sixth time. . . .” His time was 6hr 50.2 sec.

Mr W. J. Walter, president of the Canterbury Centre of the New Zealand Athletic Cycling Union, considered O’Shea “the best rider in the world today” at the evening function. Mr A. S. Legh, of the sponsoring Dunlop Rubber Company, went further: “the best road and track rider the world has ever produced.” Probably neither of them knew how great Phil O’Shea was that day.