Kaikorai rugby myth debunked

30/6/2009

Prolific sports historian Winston Cooper (1955-57) has completed yet another major task – the writing of the Kaikorai Rugby Football Club’s 125th history.

And it has been a somewhat tortuous route to completion with the official club records stolen from the back seat of a car owned by the Kaikorai club secretary, that forcing a specific focus on the club’s players as the major theme of the book.

Winston Cooper - another sporting history recorded.

It is the fifth club history Winston has written and the most difficult because of the lack of records. He has earlier completed the histories of the Southern Rugby Club (1984), the Forbury Park Trotting Club (1988), the St Clair Golf Club (2005) and the Pirates Rugby Club (2007).

Winston rejoined the Pirates club after completing five years of military service and honed his literary skills as a reporter for the Evening Star and a senior sub-editor on the Otago Daily Times for 28 years.

‘‘I have worked full-time on writing history books since I retired three years ago,’’ he says.

His interest in rugby history started in the early 1970s, when he was a member of the Otago team that lifted the ‘‘Ranfurly Shield of the Air’’ from North Auckland in 1972, in a sports quiz radio programme.

‘‘I enjoy doing it and like what I find out. A lot of them [club stories] come out of left field. When you dig into history you find out everything, warts and all, about people of the past because often incidents are hushed over.’’

The banishment of Kaikorai player Paddy Keogh for betting on a game in 1890 when playing for Otago against Canterbury-South Canterbury was one example.

Gambling on sporting events was widespread at the time and, although not strictly legal, was tolerated by the police. There were several incidents of players being banned for betting on sports events in which they were physically involved.

Everyone thought Keogh was banned but Winston’s research found that this was not the case.

‘‘Paddy retired from rugby before the case was heard,’’ he says.

‘‘He was not warned off and was able to retain his interest in the sport at the Kaikorai club.’’

Winston is now researching a book he intends to write on the history of the Otago Rugby Football Union with Mark Fowler, who was his research assistant when he wrote the history of the Pirates club.