LETTER EVADES ISSUE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 459, 14 September 1928, Page 10

LETTER EVADES ISSUE

QUERIES WITH QUALIFICATIONS

The first part of Mr. Cameron’s letter consists of a,rather foolish quibble over the statement made in The Sun that Nicholls played in three, matches in Africa, which the All Blacks did not win. The records of the tour show this contention to be correct, in spite of an extraordinary theory advanced by Mr. Cameron in relation to two of the games. Mr. Cameron contends that two of these matches should not be counted, because in one (against

“H A R R Y F R O S T—him gentle ? ” snorted an oldtimer, to whom a Sun man ventured a query in Christchurch last year about the A.R.TJ. chairman. “You ought to have seen him playing football a regular holy terror he was in the scru m. Played front row at that, and could hook the ball out with the best of them. But make no

mistake about this —always scrupu--lously fair on the field, and as fit as a fiddle. That’s what took him into the All Blacks —that is, if you’ll give us any credit for producing All Blacks in my day.” The memory of that conversation often comes back to' the writer’s mind when he goes out to Eden Park, and sees a short, grey-headed gentleman in spectacles chatting genially to a little knot of old-timers, who gather in front of the members’ stand, like old warhorses, scenting the battle from afar, and talking over old times. It seems beyond one’s wildest dreams to connect this unobtrusive veteran Rugby administrator with the crashing, smashing days of New Zealand football when “Off-side” McKenzie, Bernie Fanning and others were a power. MEMORIES OF OTHER DAYS There is no reflection intended. It was often said of George Smith in the old days that he was a “gay deceiver” on and off the field, that he didn’t look the part, but put the ball in his hands —then look out! I suppose the greatest day in Harry Frost’s Rugby career was August 15, 1896. On that date, he played for New Zealand against a visiting Queensland team captained by Sammy Cockroft. The Canterbury team was on tour in the North Island wlien Harry Frost was selected to play for New Zealand. I

►-Old-timers are never tired of talking about that team, and of “Tiddley” White, the Napoleonic general of Christchurch football, who had the cruel luck to meet with an injury just before the international match at Wellington, and missed the chance of a lifetime. He was selected, but never played, for New Zealand. GREAT OLD-TIME REFEREE Frank Surman, one of the fastest men who ever stepped on a Rugby field, played at five-eighth, Davey Gage was captain, and W. McKenzie and Bob Oliphant, of Auckland, the wingforwards. New Zealand won by 9 points to nil. The gigantic J. 3?. Firth, for so many years headmaster of Wellington College, was the referee, and it may be that a recollection of this famous Rugby adjudicator had something to do with Harry Frost himself taking on the whistle when his playing days were over. In any <*ase, this was a later development which has to do with his long residence in Auckland, and that was years afterwards, because in the meantime, Mr. Frost had gone far afield in the service of his company, and had even played the Victorian Rules game on the other side of the Tasman Sea. AUCKLANDER BY ADOPTION Mr. Frost has been so long a resident of the Queen City that he can I

almost be claimed as an Aucklander, and his great work for football will be remembered here as long as the game is played. Away back before the war when Potter’s Paddock was the timehonoured headquarters of Auckland Rugby, he held the whistle in many games. He took refereeing as seriously as he did the game in his playing days, kept fit, and was always up with the game. On the administrative side,

he occupied the ►-presidential chair of the Auckland Association. He has been a member of the management committee of the Auckland Rugby Union for something like 16 years, nine of them as chairman of the executive. He is a past president of the New Zealand Rugby Union—a fitting recognition of a life-llime’s work for the game. His most candid friends will tell you that so far from trying to set himself up as a Mussolini in the control of the game, he errs on the side of tolerance, and if any excuse is Tieeded, it may be said that his long years of experience have taught him that there are two sides to every question, and that the other man’s opinion may be as good as his own. DEVOTION TO THE GAME I do not think he has ever regarded himself in the light of a heaven-sent administrator (an all too common failing in high places in the Rugby world to-day), but in his downright honesty to himself and those associated with him, his untiring devotion to the game and above all, the interests of the schoolboys and the players coming on, Harry Frost has carved out a place for himself in Auckland Rugby, which will be the harder to fill from the fact that he has asked for no rewards or recognition for himself, but has been content to work quietly and effectively for the game he loves.