https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/leagu...coast-league-legend-peter-kerridge-bowing-out
Jack of all trades: West Coast league legend Peter Kerridge bowing out
The man who reckoned rugby league had put the West Coast on the map "as much as Monteith's beer and whitebait" is hanging up four hats.
West Coast Rugby League chairman Peter Kerridge - a former general manager of the West Coast's hospitals - retired at the April general meeting after 22 years as chairman.
The 77-year-old also served as president, secretary and treasurer, holding all four roles "after our treasurer died 18 months ago".
Steve Martin, the New Zealand Rugby League's southern zone general manager, said it is widely accepted that "West Coast rugby league has survived in such difficult times because of the extraordinary contribution by Peter".
Kerridge, a respected administrator at national level, has exuded passion for rugby league since he first laced on boots as a Kohinoor club midget in 1948.
He was disappointed when the West Coast's senior competition - a nursery for almost 50 Kiwis - went into recess last year, but he never threw in the towel.
Kerridge, who has also penned a number of West Coast rugby league jubilee histories, admitted he was "relieved" at giving up the reins after so long, but he is not going to be lost to the sport.
"I'm going to knuckle down and write the history of the West Coast Rugby League that I've been planning to do for years."
Rugby league devotion is in Kerridge's DNA.
His father, Eddie, from the Waiuta gold mining township, scored a try when Inangahua beat a visiting Canterbury team and served for 30 years on the West Coast Rugby League executive.
A 10-year-old Peter was the ball boy in the 1952 Kohinoor team, coached by his dad. Ron Messenger - later to become New Zealand Rugby Union president - was Kohinoor's vice-captain. A two-roomed dwelling at the bottom of the Kerridge's garden near Greymouth's Victoria Park served as the Kohinoor clubrooms.
Peter Kerridge recalled facing a sporting choice when he started at Marist Brothers' Catholic high school in Greymouth. "I got confused and put my name down for rugby union. We were having tea that night, and I told Dad I'd signed up for rugby union. He said, 'No, no, you've got it wrong, it's rugby league'. Young Peter bolted from the dining table, "ran across town to the brothers' house and banged on the door; they must have thought the place was on fire. I pleaded with the brother to take my name out of rugby union and put it into rugby league. I wonder what would have happened if I never did that!"
Kerridge captained the Marist club's under-18s and played Senior Bs and was a West Coast representative in both grades.
He hung up his boots to referee schoolboys games on Saturdays and adult matches on Sundays for 20 years.
He made his mark as an administrator, with the Marist club, the Referees Association and as secretary-publicity officer of the West Coast Rugby League Supporters Club.
Kerridge - a life member of the WCRL and the referees association - devoted his time to his beloved sport after taking early retirement when the hospital sector was re-structured in 1993.
"I took a part-time job in crime prevention, and put my energies full-time in to rugby league."
He kept getting re-elected unopposed every year, quipping: "I don't know if that was due to satisfaction or apathy."
Kerridge, a Justice of the Peace, became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) in 2007 for services to rugby league and the community.
He said maintaining strong competitions on the West Coast had always been a battle. "At the start [in 1915] there were only three teams. . . There was a purple patch just after the Second World War were had seniors, reserves and third grade competitions, but that probably only lasted 15 years or so."
The West Coast still has 300 junior players, but has not had a senior competition for two years. The West Coast Chargers representative team trained through the 2018 winter, but did not play until the South Island representative tournament at the end of the season. This year, a Greymouth Greyhounds team has been formed to play in the Tasman competition against two Nelson teams.
Economic and social factors were behind the West Coast's rugby league decline. "The heartland has gone. The mining community [which once produced scores of West Coast representatives and Kiwis] has lost hundreds of well-paid jobs. That's affected the economy of the Coast, in general. Miners tended to be fit and tough, which made them ideally suited to rugby league."
Sporting choices have also increased. "Rugby league is a gladiatorial sport from the 1800s - it's not everyone's cup of tea to play in the 21st century. There are a lot of other options, including individual sports. Kids on the Coast playing sport today play pretty much everything."
Kerridge says the West Coast junior committee has been innovative in organising different competitions, including games featuring select teams named after former Kiwis such as Trevor Kilkelly and George Menzies.
Fighting rugby league's corner has been a point of principle for Kerridge. For the first 50 or 60 years, the sport was treated as the poor relation of rugby union, he said. "The attitude towards our code made us circle the wagons and say: 'We don't care ... we are going to get on with it.' It made you more determined to fly the flag and succeed."
While he has reservations about New Zealand rugby league's move to a regional federation administration system and the sport's growing dependence on gaming charity funders and government agencies, he says the "highs outweigh the lows".
Kerridge was proud to steer the WCRL through its centennial celebrations in 2015 and is delighted that two proud clubs, Brunner and Runanga have survived to celebrate their centenaries in 2019.
"The highs go back before my time [as chairman]. West Coast beat England 17-8 at Victoria Park in 1946. We had the test match in1954 when the Kiwis played Great Britain. Greymouth became the smallest place to ever host a rugby league test match. It was a tribute to our secretary at the time, Tom McKenzie, who was very influential."
Kerridge fondly recalls the days when West Coast players would "play for the Kiwis at Carlaw Park in front of thousands one week, then be back playing club footy at Wingham Park the next. Tony Coll [Kiwis captain in the 1970s] would fly back to Hokitika after a test and there'd be a cab waiting to take him to Wingham Park. He'd miss the start of the game, but he would be back running out for Marist, the day after playing for the Kiwis."
On Kerridge's watch, the West Coast hosted a game between Bluey McClennan's Kiwis and a New Zealand Residents XIII in 2006?. "That was a buzz for everybody."
"We also had a Russian team spend a week in Greymouth on a tour of the South Island. Their manager was a former Soviet naval commander. For someone who lived through the Cold War, to have a Russian team at Wingham Park, well you had to pinch yourself. They had a big squad, so three or four of the Russian players turned out for Westport against Hokitika in the curtainraiser. We didn't know whether to call them Westportski, or, if they'd played for Hokitika, Hokitikagrad."
Kerridge also organised a pre-season match in 2011 between the Warriors and the Newcastle Knights at Wingham Park to honour the 29 Pike River mine victims - including West Coast rugby league representative
Blair Sims.
"We had to do everything ... my wife and I sat down at the kitchen table to design the tickets. The two teams were excellent with their PR - anyone who wanted to meet the players had a chance to. We got 5500 people to Wingham Park for the game, which was a record rugby league crowd for the West Coast."
Kerridge has also got a kick at seeing West Coast 17s and 19s teams upset their Canterbury counterparts in recent seasons.
Kerridge has handed over the president and secretary jobs to West Coast representative coach Brad Tacon, a former Suburbs club chairman. Rose Greer - sister of 1980s Kiwi Gordon Smith - has taken over as treasurer.
He's confident the game is in good hands and still has hope for the future.
"We are still producing some good youngsters, we've got some good talent who are 17 or 18 years old now and have had good coaching."
West Coast-raised Kiwis hooker Slade Griffin is set for a NRL return with the Newcastle Knights after a knee reconstruction. Griffin Neame, 18, is playing for the Cowboys' junior team in Townsville. Scrumhalf Brad Campbell is making his mark in Christchurch with Hornby and the Canterbury Bulls.
There could yet be another chapter in the West Coast's proud rugby league history for Peter Kerridge to chronicle.
