Personalities In N.Z. Sport

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 465, 21 September 1928, Page 10

Personalities In N.Z. Sport

From Rugby Scrum to Canary Breeder !

“I think he must have tackled everything in sport, from playing in a Rugby scrum to breeding canaries!” This was how a close friend of Mr. J. H. Miller summed up the popular Y.M.C.A. sports director’s connection with sport. Before coming up to Auckland to infuse a vigorous and breezy personality into summer and winter sports in the metropolis of the North, “Don” Miller was an outstanding figure in a diversity of sporting activities in Gisborne. He captained Poverty Bay at both Rugby and cricket, toured with the North Island Country team and was a member of the Bay eleven which lifted the Hawke Cup from Wanganui in 1919. From 1907 to 1919, Don was a regular member of the Poverty Bay Rugby reps. He had a ton of speed on the football field, and once away, there were mighty few that stood any chance of catching this hefty threequarter. He was contemporaneous with Norman McKenzie, present All Black selector, and A. J. Downing, both of whom were members of the 1911 N.I. Country team which visited Auckland, McKenzie being a fine fullback with tremendous kicking range and Downing one of the greatest forwards the game has produced. PLAYED SOCCER, TOO

A damaged knee—that bugbear of so

many footballers —closed Don’s Rugby career, but there was no keeping out of a game of football of some sort, and for several seasons he proved himself a sound goal-keeper in Auckland with the Y.M.C.A. Club. As a cricketer, Don Miller lVas been so long used to hitting sixers that the boundary fence is as much a part of his game as the bat with which he attack the bowling. These days, he is more sedate in his methods, but they still have vivid recollections in suburban cricket of Don hitting up 125 not out in an hour in a match three or four years back. Rugby, Soccer and cricket have all claimed strong support from the Y.M.C.A. veteran. As a sideline he used to play mid-week hockey during the Rugby season in the Bay, and he could put his back into an oar in a racing shell with the best of them. On the administrative side of sport he has done his share enthusiastically and well. He is at present a member of the Management Committee of the Auckland Cricket Association, and has held similar positions on the

A.F.A. and Suburban Cricket Association. As a “live-wire” organiser he has been a tower of strength to the Auckland Y.M.C.A., his wide, practical knowledge, keen enthusiasm and a flair for organisation making him an outstanding figure in the progressive activities of the association.