Club rugby: Wanderers’ black jersey used to be red, white and blue

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The champion 1980 Wanderers team.

The most successful rugby and sports club in Horowhenua is about to celebrate a significant milestone and will put a time-honoured trophy on the line.

The Levin Wanderers Rugby and Sports Club will celebrate their 125th jubilee this King's Birthday weekend and will polish up the Jack Graham Trophy for a match against Foxton at Levin Domain.

The club has produced many fine rugby teams and players in the last 125 years, laying claim to the likes of Harry Jacob, Carlos Spencer, Cody Taylor, Steve Hirini and Sir Bernard Freyberg among many others, while being strongly represented in netball too.

Hirini is the current president of the club.

While the club had produced many outstanding individuals and teams over the years, any club wouldn't survive without people that work tirelessly behind the scenes without actually taking the field. A jubilee can be as much about celebrating achievement as it can be about celebrating service.

It was fitting then that Wanderers and their Foxton opponents will play for the Jack Graham Trophy on the Saturday of the jubilee, at Levin Domain. Foxton is the oldest rugby club in Horowhenua, established in 1880.

The late Jack Graham was a former player, coach and club president, whose contribution to Levin Wanderers spanned more than 50 years.

Graham first played for Wanderers in 1929, and represented Horowhenua in the 1930s at halfback. He coached the senior side to win the Ramsbotham Cup in the 1950s and was made a life member of the club in 1962.

The Graham connection with Foxton came from his wife Reta (nee Nohana), who provided the Jack Graham Trophy on behalf of the Graham and Nahona whānau to be played at Levin Domain between the two teams in her late husband's memory.

Where possible the trophy is presented by a member of the whānau.

The trophy hasn't been contested for almost a decade, as there had been occasions when neither club had fielded a senior side. The trophy currently sat in the Wanderers cabinet.

Meanwhile, the current jubilee committee were expecting more than 200 guests for a King's Birthday that will start with a get-together on Friday night, netball on Saturday morning with four teams in action, followed by the senior rugby action at Levin Domain on Saturday.

A dinner and dance with a live band would be held at the Hudson Room of the Levin Cosmopolitan Club on Saturday night, with former player Bevan Sanson as MC.

The farewell function on Sunday would feature junior matches and bouncy castles for the children. Jubilee committee chairperson Nina Hori Te Pa said on the Sunday there would also be atime to remember those club members who had whānau that had passed on in the last 25 years.

Hori Te Pa said the reunion committee of Fay Hokianga, Steve Hirini, Andrea Gallagher, Renee Tuakpua, Debbie Matahaere, Jim Barker and Jalaine Tahiwi, who first met a year ago, deserved credit for their hard work, with support from Manu Takuira, Sonny Whakarau, Solomon Falamoe and Kelly Tahiwi.

The club was initially formed with the amalgamation of two established clubs, Levin (founded in 1898) and Wanderers (founded in 1899).

It was the dominant club in the early years, and won seven championship titles in the decade after World War I. In the early years, the club wore red, white and blue jerseys after the amalgamation, but changed to a black jersey in 1911.

While the club had a proud rugby history, like most rural rugby clubs around New Zealand it was contending with dwindling player numbers. A few seasons ago it failed to field a team.

But the hiatus was short-lived and a senior reserve team was formed the following season.

And for their Jubilee season, the club has managed to put two teams - both a senior A and a Senior B team - on the park. It had also started fielding rugby league teams, too.

Jubilee weekend will see past and present players encouraged to support the club's netball teams at Donnelly Park in the morning, followed by a double-header of rugby at Levin Domain.

A range of jubilee merchandise was available, ranging from hats and caps to cooler bags and umbrellas.

- Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ on Air.

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