Favourite Sports Yarns

I always travel with a notebook to jot down the hard case or significant sporting stories I hear. My thinking is - 'these are too good to lose.' This website is a perfect place for me to publish them.

Did a young New Zealand Radio Host help the Black Caps win a cricket test? He thinks so! (And as the story is 50 years old he reckons its well worth re-telling!)

7 January 2019

*By Keith Quinn (from his book Quinn's Quips)* In my career by early 1969 I was deemed sound enough by the bosses of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, as a very young broadcaster, to be the regular studio host of the Sports Roundup radio show. It was quite simple broadcasting work and good for a young bloke to be involved with. But one day I think I played a major role in New Zealand winning a cricket test match! Read more »

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Rugby Poetry - Always welcome here

25 November 2017

From time to time there are those rugby fans who nostalgically reflect on their time in the game; and they do it by the magic of poetry. You will find some memorable efforts on this website. This latest one comes from James Simpson of New Zealand who clearly remembers with enormous affection his days of playing in the hooking position - and his enormous respect for others who did so too. Read more »

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Rugby Poetry - More of it!

14 March 2017

A Poem for old rugby players........... Read more »

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An All Black rugby yarn of the best kind - from Bluff in the deep south!

31 December 2015

WHILE IN SYDNEY IN 2015 TO SEE THE PRE-WORLD CUP BLEDLISLOE CUP GAME I WAS REMINDED WHILE THERE OF MY ALL-TIME FAVOURITE BLEDISLOE CUP STORY Read more »

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Rugby Poetry - it exists.

21 April 2015

Until someone can enlighten me as to who authored the excellent poetic effort attached here I will publish it anonymously but with thanks. My friend Alan Trotter of Tauranga, New Zealand has sent it to me. He says it was 'sourced' to him from the United States - but who can be sure? Read more »

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Rugby Memories that just won't go Away!

19 February 2015

I can remember clearly my first trip to the far north of New Zealand. It was in the hot, lazy summer of 1966. I had just turned 20 years old. I left Wellington with two Wellington College schoolmates, Dave Henderson and Evan Purdie, on a traveling holiday. I don't know why this story has come back to me now all these years later but once I got into clattering away on this keyboard the memories came flooding back. Read more »

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OK, so this story isn't about rugby - but it's a great one all the same!

28 January 2015

This story might even read like a corny sports joke - but I saw it in a pile of my notes not so long ago - its a boxing story from a long time back - and is worth retelling here I think. Read more »

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A Proud Mother Had Her Say at a Test Match!

13 January 2015

This story is part of folklore at the Barbarians Club in Auckland, New Zealand. It is one which shows that even in the middle of a feisty rugby test match a mother's pride will still come shining through! Read more »

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What about the day an All Black shocked New Zealand beyond all decency with his after match radio 'speech!'

31 December 2014

In conservative New Zealand of the 1950s the media was vastly different to what it was these days. For a start there was no television at all in New Zealand, radio was careful and conformist (being totally Government owned), the newspapers rarely gave by-lines to writers. It goes without saying that unacceptable or bad language across any of the radio communications industry was totally unheard of. But one afternoon on National Radio an All Black grabbed the microphone and let rip with what was then a total shocker! Read more »

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Athletic Park in Wellington; When Colin Meads said goodbye there.

3 September 2014

*ATHLETIC PARK* in Wellington, New Zealand, was a much loved headquarters of the game in the Capital city for over a 100 years. It was finally closed in 1999  and the game in Wellington shifted to the Westpac Stadium in the city centre. Read more »

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