Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Monday June 19th 2017

Tours Past and Tours Present!

A non rugby day today – at least in a playing sense: we are going to travel to Te Kuiti to see the unveiling of the Colin Meads Statue and the Colin & Stan Meads exhibition. Hopefully Pinetree will do it himself but it seems doubtful. He has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and is reported to have been very poorly.

If you don't know - Colin Meads is THE legend of NZ rugby and probably the most famous man in the country, absolute royalty.

First though is getting over last night (probably under stated how bonkers last night was – taught each other several new drinking games and spent have the night up to tour shenanigans) – and down to breakfast.



Another busy kangaroo court the highlights of which are Lee getting 40 lashes for letting Flash down and Ben Win using his military experience for some square bashing naked drill sessions in the garden. 







Once we finally get through that everyone gets into their best shirt & tie, and in Dan John/Papa Lewis’ case a blazer – some needed more help than others (thanks Lee) but eventually everyone looks pretty decent (Jamie is pleased).







Some of us also have to move out and the haste with which our luxury rooms are taken is obscene (Ieuan has never moved so quick in all his playing days).  Gappa has some actual proper full paying guests so some of us are in a motel for the night but that's for later...

Once our bus arrives from the 1970s, off we go… Bambi has now been named Thumper and bangs his feet loudly every time his name is mentioned, which given there are regular role calls is too bloody often. Rhys Beasley joins us again.  It’s about an hours drive but with Simon Day’s tuneless singing (name that ‘tune’) and a hangover it feels longer. We are on the state highway and it’s very rural. The terrain could be a flat West Wales but the hills are more like mole hills – small and rolling, than mini mountains. Plenty of large farms and a couple of very colourful Maori graveyards. Colourful not only with flowers but also garlands and photos, but not so many heavy gravestones, often just a wooden cross. Presumably these are marae but as they don’t have the “Look we are important” big stone Church/Chapel it’s hard to be sure.


We get to Te Kuiti which has (again) been renamed Meadsville (“please leave soccer balls in the bins provided”) for the day with many of the shops also renamed in honour – you can see Meadsville Shearing Shed (Hairdressers) in the photo – and there are displays such as a skeleton with the legend “waiting for another Lions series win in NZ”. Te Kuiti is a typical rural NZ town with nothing over a low 2 storeys that they could use for cowboy films






Anyway – apart from stocking up on hairbands and paracetamol – it’s into the nearest pub (obviously) where base camp is quickly established and Kipper asks a bloke wearing a NZ Barbarians blazer if he's ever played rugby before. The kids are still having to hold hands as punishment for last night, Shed Sideshow and John Lewis are on flag bearing duties, Lee is slave and though he can’t wear the dress all is well :)











We head into a very packed town centre and get as near as we can behind the various special guests. There is a nice holiday atmosphere with all the local school children present in their school uniform and the town otherwise empty. 










Fantastically – Colin is not only present but gives a very humble speech himself joking about having jugs of beer whilst others had champagne, only now coming around to the idea of the statue and thanking various people. There are messages from all over but only(!?) John Spencer (Tour Manager) from the Lions who played against Pinetree in 1971.

There is a very good local haka from the school and some songs before the statue is unveiled fairly smoothly. (see video below)

I finally get a quick catch up with Henry ‘Coward of Scotland’ Douglas – a veteran of the 2005 trip between speeches. Unfortunately there isn’t time to catch up properly but it’s always good to see him.

Once it’s over we give some pretty decent versions of Sospan Fach and Calon Lan and end up posing for photos and signing autographs. A BBC Cymru person later tells Roy – "oh I heard some Welsh singing but I didn’t bother going over" (FFS).

Luckily this guy did - Here is a video that gives some background, a bit of the speeches and haka plus the mighty Warriors at 23:25 doing the fade to black at the end


Other reports of the day:













We have food in a Chinese/Chippie were you buy a tupperware pot of the desired size and fill up with whatever you want – typical its all good and you can’t get through it all. From there Mrs Bersley offer lifts for the slowest, but as it’s “only about 200 yards” most f us walk up to Waitete RFC for a couple of beers. NZ yards seem to equal about 4 of ours but it’s flat and dry. On normal days Te Kuiti’s claim to fameis being the Sheap Shearing Captial of the World and there is a 7m statute on the way to the rugby club. Not sure if it’s specifically of Sir David Alexander Fagan who won the New Zealand Golden Shears contest a record 16 times. He set 10 world records, and won five world, six world team, and 16 national titles, making him New Zealand's most successful competition sheep shearer (yes I’ve checked Wiki for the details) but it’s very impressive.




When we eventually get to the clubhouse there are a fair few there, Henry and his little Scottish Clan are on the whiskeys, he tells me he has to take it easy as he agrees to another round. Stan Meads turns up and is very gracious – talking to anyone and posing for photos. He remembers us and the training session he watched back in 2005.











Our singing is requested and cheered and there is another small kangaroo court. The club do a roaring trade in Waitete t shirts (mine from 2005 is still going strong thanks), the “I always thought Stan was the better player joke doesn’t get much of an airing (after Pinetree cried off from meeting us in 2005 though me and Colin Tacon did briefly shake hands with him later). Papa Lewis doesn’t quite get the horns coming out of the head photo right and more beer is drunk.

We head back up to the statue for some photos and some have a wander around the exhibition


















Eventually it’s back onto the bus for a decent sing-song on the way home, I say home – I mean town of course. For me some of us that's via a very cheap motel - bit of a bump from the Narrows, but perfectly adequate.

In town things have picked up now the Lions are due to play tomorrow and it’s very quickly bouncing. We bump into various people we sort of know – Sean Holley stops for a decent chat and Rhodri Morris (Burry Port scrum half) who is here following the Lions, travelling on his own) meets up.


The pubs we went into last night are unrecognisable – we get dragged into a game were you tie a belt around your opponents head and try and drag him forward. The guys challenging people are obviously experienced and defeat all comers. We discuss touring Hong Kong with the Director of the Hong Kong Rugby Union and join in what singing there is... There’s not enough singing but there are various singers/bands banging out the cliches: Wonderwall, 5000 miles etc. Hear the tours 1st version of Dance to my 10 guitars but there aren’t enough Moaris/Old foggies for this to get much reaction. Most of the sing-songs deteriorate into chants of “LIONS! LIONS! LIONS!” ad nauseam. As ever most of the Lions fans seem to be Welsh but there is a good group of Irish lads amongst it.










The group has split up a fair bit by now – I think me and Dan John head home about 2am but am open to correction.


Strange day, the sort of solemn bit of seeing Colin Meads unveil his statue seems a million years away from the full on impact of the Lions tour hitting Hamilton. So pleased to have seen what was a very special occasion and it seems a shame that there wasn’t more presence from the current tour (from Lions & NZ) given it was only 70 minutes from Hamilton. Following that in the evening it was straight into the current tour with the Lions very definitely in town.


RIP Pinetree.


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