City titan Fyfe loses illness battle

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Time and tide wait for no man, and footballers have no special privileges.

Players who in their prime seemed indestructible grow old and die, like the rest of us.

Word comes from Australia that a titan of the Gisborne City defence of the mid-1970s, John Fyfe, has died after a long illness. He was 73.

Fyfe, a 6ft 2in teak-hard Scot, joined City shortly before the end of Kevin Fallon’s first spell as coach, in 1974.

At first he found it hard to break into the starting line-up. Ken Dugdale and Les Todd had developed a formidable partnership at the centre of the City defence, and goalkeeper Keith Bowley dealt with almost everything that got past the back four.

But when Dugdale left the club midway through the season, the door opened for Fyfe.

By the end of the season he had established himself in the first team, and in 1975 and 1976 he was a mainstay of the side, captaining the team in 1976.

While not a stylish player, Fyfe was effective in the finest tradition of the destructive stopper. He tackled like a tank, was brave in the air and, if he could not get close enough to block a shot at source, he’d lie down in front of it — like a goalkeeper without arms . . . it was a tactic that often worked.

When Gisborne City were relegated at the end of the 1976 season, Caversham coach Bill Fleming flew from Dunedin to Gisborne to see if he could lure any of the club’s best players to the South Island. Fyfe was reportedly near the top of his wish list.

Fleming left empty-handed but Fyfe, along with others from that year’s team, headed to Australia. He and his wife Marie settled in Adelaide.

Their son Iain was a successful professional footballer in Australia. He played in the 1999 Under-17 FIFA World Championship in New Zealand and was in the Australian side who lost the final to Brazil, on penalties, after extra time ended with the score 0-0. His clubs included Adelaide City and United, Sydney Olympic and Sydney FC, and Campbelltown City. He also played 15 games for Scottish second division club Hamilton Academical.

John Maxwell Fyfe, born on September 9, 1949, died on July 2, 2023. He is survived by his wife Marie, son Iain, daughter Louise, and grandchildren Lennon, Olivia and Logan.

Two other notable Gisborne City players have died this year — All White midfielder Grant Turner was 64 and former Sheffield Wednesday striker/midfielder Brian Strutt was 63.

Crowd favourite Turner played for City in 1980, ’81, ’82, ’83, ’84 and the start of ’85.

Strutt joined City in 1986 and was a key player in the Chatham Cup win of 1987. He left for Tauranga/Mt Maunganui before the end of the 1988 season.

Steve Sumner and Sean Byrne, coach and assistant coach of the 1987 team have also died in recent years.

An outstanding goalkeeper for Eastern Union in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Ron Leakey, died in November last year at the age of 87.

A longtime resident of Auckland, Leakey kept in touch with friends from his Gisborne years to let them know when old teammates died.

Another goalkeeper, Mick Locker, died in May this year. He was an outstanding last line of defence for Eastern Union and Gisborne City in the 1960s and early 1970s. And in many of those teams, scoring goals at the other end of the field, was Len Cudd, who died in April 2021.

These and others are remembered whenever their old teammates meet.