ENTHUSIASTIC SUPPORTERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 July 1939, Page 5

ENTHUSIASTIC SUPPORTERS

- — SERVICES ACKNOWLEDGED. PRAISE FOR THE LADIES. This year when the Carterton Football Club is celebrating its jubilee and the thoughts of most football followers will be on those old players of other days it is fitting to place on record the great service rendered by Those enthusiastic supporters, who, through no fault of their own were not adapted to play the game. In this respect the Carterton Club has always been fortunate. In the late Mr W. Moore the club had a supporter who never tired of doing something for his home team. He did the arranging in connection with players obtaining leave to play and in those days the players time was valuable. In the days when referees were picked up as both teams arrived on the field, Mr W. Moore was always on hand and no day was too rough for him to referee a game, just as he was, high collar, long pants and light boots. Another old timer was Mr R. Downard, secretary, referee and organiser all in one. Nothing was a bother to him and he fostered the team spirit. Mr Adam Armstrong, father of L. I. and P. Armstrong, was another of the old brigade who did great service for football in his home town. Although he was not a player on the field he used his lungs to cheer, his sons and their twelve playing mates on to victory. One could go on referring to these old timer, who have slipped over the deadball line for all time, writes Mr H. J. McKenzie, and I doubt if we will ever see their like again. Although they have gone to their last resting place, there is no doubt that when the Carterton football jubilee procession starts on its way through the High Street on Saturday, they will be there in spirit. In passing I should like to mention Ihe support the club received from the ladies of Carterton. While the boys played football their sisters and mothers would go to watch the games; and the girls know as much about (he laws of the game as their brothers. In those days there was no Hollywood to talk about. For breakfast, dinner and tea there was roast mutton and potatoes and for dessert, football. These ladies did much to help the Carterton Football Club to survive in the lean years. In latter years one of the best coaches in Carterton was K. Armstrong. To “Strut" as he was known by his friends, the credit must be given, for the way he "mothered” the Rover team and club until they had won three banners under the old Thursday Union. “Strat” is now in Palmerston North. Other non-players who did great service were Dick Robertson, Joe Colburn and Dug. Hatton.

He was always in such good form that he was going almost as well at the finish of a game as at the start. In loose rushes he was outstanding for his heady and tricky work, and his brilliance in the now lost art of dribbling. He holds the unique record of having played on more than one occasion for the Wairarapa senior representatives while still a membei* of the Carterton juniors, playing in one season both for the senior and the junior representatives. He played for the North Island against the South Island in 1911 and 1912. “LOFTY” ARMSTRONG. A tall forward and a great winger, “Lofty” Armstrong represented Wairarapa from 1899 till 1903. An expert at the wing forward game he gained his place in the New Zealand team which toured Australia in 1903 under the captaincy of Jimmy Duncan, and which is considered by capable judges to have been the best team ever New Zealand sent overseas, winning the whole of the ten matches played, scoring 276 points and only having 13 recorded against them. Besides “Lofty” Armstrong, there were t(vo other Wairarapa players in that team, the late “Tiny" McMinn, of Carterton, and the late Dan Udy. of Greytown. “Lofty” played in the North Island teams against the South Island in 1902 and 1903. CHARLIE REID. The “daddy” of Carterton football today. Charlie Reid, can go back some fifty-five years to the beginning of his active football career, being a splendid type of forward who , played for Wairarapa as far back as 1887, and re* presented the district in many important matches. “JAKE” BAUMBER. The late Jacob Baumber, who was a foundation member of the Red Star Club, Masterton, was one of the most versatile players the Carterton Club or the Wellington province has had. Playing first for Carterton seniors some fifty-three years ago and representing Wairarapa on innumerable occasions, he later removed to Wellington where he played for many years for Petone and the Wellington representatives. “IRVY” ARMSTRONG. This splendid forward rendered yeoman service for the Carterton Club and the Wairarapa representatives for many years, being a vigorous, hardworking type of forward that Carterton excelled in producing in the early years of the twentieth century. Few of Carterton’s long list of outstanding forwards have contributed so much toward the club’s successes on the field as Irvy Armstrong. KEITH REID. Keith Reid was of a stamp of heady, vigorous forward rarely seen nowadays and he took a prominent part in Wairarapa’s Ranfurly Shield victories. He played for many years for Wairarapa and captained the team on more than one occasion leading it in many of its greatest triumphs. He played for the North Island in 1929 and for New Zealand in the same year, being a member of the team which visited Australia. Closely associated with football administration in Wairarapa for many years this popular ex-player is selector of the Wairarapa senior team this year. BILL IRVINE. Learning his football in Wairarapa, playing with the Featherston seniors, Bill Irvine drifted to Hawke’s Bay, became a member of that noted Ranfurly Shield team, obtained All Black rank, returned to Wairarapa and played for years for Carterton and the Wairarapa representatives. He was one of the greatest footballers Wairarapa has had and with that other outstanding Wairarapa hooker. Quentin Donald, gave the speedy Wairarapa backs of the Bert Cooke era plenty of the ball in Ranfurly Shield matches. He played for New Zealand in 1923, 1924. 1925 and 1926 and for the North Island in the same years. He went Home with the All Blacks in 1924. CLARRIE MOORE. Clarric Moore was one of the hardest working and most reliable forwards ever Carterton has had. Playing a sound scientific forward game, and turning the scale at about 13 stone, he represented Wairarapa many times in the days of such other noted forwards as the late Jack Workman, Billy Jackson, the late Dan Udy, Ted Udy, “Lofty" Armstrong, Jack McKenzie, Alick Gray, Ahipenc, A. Callister and Irvy Armstrong.