After the excitement of the Rugby World Cup it’s taken a while to wind up our email communications but we have had quite a busy time at the club with the Annual General Meeting and of course Jonah Lomu’s funeral at Eden Park on Monday.
Club manager Dean Paddy has sent in a report on Jonah’s last trip to Eden Park:
What a wonderful day at our club. Many of you would have watched on TV. We were able to do that from our boxes. Then immediately afterwards many of the guests retired to the Baabaas clubrooms.
Just off the top of my head, these were many of the All Blacks present: John Kirwan, ‘Buck’ Shelford, ‘Beegee’ Williams, Dylan Mika, Eric Rush, Joeli Vidiri, Michael Jones, Joe Stanley, Frank Bunce, Justin Marshall, Ian Jones, and I feel sure there were many others. Also present were John Hart, Manu Vatuvei, one of the Marsh twins, Paul Thomson, Adrian Cashmore, John Mayhew, and a huge number of former Counties players.
I am also very pleased to be able to tell you that Ron Williams, in his first event as President, spoke very well. Ron has to step into very big shoes, but just as Beegee made us all feel very proud to be Barbarians, I feel certain that Ron will do the same. Dylan Mika reciprocated on behalf of the Lomu family and also spoke very well.
Inaugural Royal Wolf Rugby Tertiary Scholarship
Terry Dunleavy organised a function at the clubrooms on Tuesday November 24 attended by some 55 guests for the awarding of the inaugural Royal Wolf scholarship.
The half a dozen finalists from various schools were a very impressive group of young men.
The winner was Adrian Choat, a Liston College boy who plans to study at the University of Auckland for an engineering degree, to follow in the footsteps of his civil engineer father whose company specialises in concrete kerbing. The scholarship was negotiated with Royal Wolf, New Zealand’s leading shipping container firm, by the Auckland Rugby Union Supporters Club Junior Rugby Foundation. It will be awarded annually to Auckland secondary school leavers to commit to the Auckland Union. Adrian plays his club rugby for Waitemata.
At the announcement in the clubrooms of the Barbarians at Eden Park, by Royal Wolf’s New Zealand manager, Paul Creighton, the foundation’s chairman Barry Hodge said it was an historic occasion in that it takes the long-standing support by the Supporters Club to a new level, a virtual ‘Rhodes scholarship’ of rugby for young, high performing young Auckland stars of the future.
Auckland Rugby Union CEO Andy Dalton congratulated Royal Wolf and the Junior Rugby Foundation for this further positive step in encouraging emerging Auckland rugby talent.
Club Christmas party
A reminder that this is being held at the clubrooms this coming Friday (kickoff is at 5.30pm). Entertainment is organised, so I look forward to seeing large numbers in attendance so our bar staff are challenged – in a nice way, of course.
Upcoming cricket events in January
The following cricket events are scheduled to be held at Eden Park during January:
January 10: Blackcaps vs Sri Lanka, T20
January 15: Blackcaps vs Pakistan, T20
January 31: Blackcaps vs Pakistan, ODI
February 3: Blackcaps vs Australia, ODI
If you would like to purchase a ticket in our club boxes for these games, please send back an email to secretary Ken Baguley at sec@brfc.co.nz and he will let you know the costs once he gets these from Eden Park.
We look forward to seeing a good turnout on Friday.
