Havilah Down — patriarch of hockey

Press, 7 February 1986, Page 20

Havilah Down — patriarch of hockey

William Havilah Down, who proposed the motion to form the Selwyn Hockey Club 75 years ago, died in Christchurch on Monday evening, only hours before the seventysixth annual meeting of the club.

Mr Down, considered the patriarch of New Zealand hockey, attended, to the best of club members’ memories, every one of those earlier annual meetings, testimony to his dedication to the club he helped found, and to hockey in general.

Mr Down’s involvement with Selwyn was one of numerous hockey accomplishments through the year. He received an M.B.E. for his services to the sport as long ago as 1958, and in 1978 he became one of only a handful of people in the world to receive the International Hockey Federation’s Award of Merit

For A 36 consecutive years, Mr Down was the secretary of the New Zealand Hockey Association, and he was instrumental in arranging the first tour of an Indian team, then the un-

disputed masters of the game, to New Zealand in 1926. That was the Indian Army team. Mr Down’s long service to the national association was rewarded with life membership, in 1951. In 1932 he was the first person to be made a life member of the Selwyn club, and for 43 years until his death he was the club’s patron and its most enthusiastic supporter. Barely a Saturday passed during the hockey seasons without Mr Down and his wife Gladys, who was 90 on Wednesday, present to see the Selwyn senior team play. For many years, Mr Down had two club matches to watch every Saturday. Three of his grandsons — Selwyn, Barry and Chris Maister — played for the University club for many years, and Mr Down was always on the sideline to watch. The three brothers ail played for New Zealand and two other grandsons — Peter and Brent Miskimmin — have also played for New Zealand, as has his son-in-law,

Gerald Maister. Besides the New Zealand Hockey Association and Selwyn club, Mr Down was a life member of four other sporting bodies — the Pioneer Sports Club, the Cashmere Bowling Club, the Mid-week Friendly Bowling Association, and the Canterbury Hockey Umpires’ Association. In his early years Mr Down was a very competent player representing Canterbury. Later he turned to umpiring and became one of the most respected umpires that New Zealand has produced. He umpired a number of test matches in New Zealand. Mr Down was one of the driving forces behind New Zealand entering a hockey team at the Olympic Games for the first time in 1956, when the Games were held at Melbourne.

He was the International Hockey Federation’s technical delegate at that tournament.

Always a spritely and alert figure Mr Down was never slow to make his feelings on any aspect of the sport known. A member of the

sports staff of “The Press” first encountered Mr Down at an annual meeting of the Canterbury Hockey Association in the early 1970 s when Mr Down was a delegate for the Selwyn club. Although in his eighties, he delivered a firm and lucid speech on the pros and cons of the financial report which drew open-mouthed stares of approval from much younger delegates. Mr Down had many moments of pride in his life. One of the proudest would have been on a chilly July Saturday morning almost 10 years ago when he saw, via live television, his grandsons, Selwyn and Barry Maister, mount the victory dais at the McGill Stadium in Montreal to receive gold medals they had won minutes earlier in the 1976 Olympic hockey final.

At his funeral on Wednesday, the Selwyn senior hockey team formed a guard of honour outside the St John’s Methodist Church, a final farewell to their most avid supporter. Mr Down is survived by his wife and three daughters.

By

KEVIN TUTTY