Former All White Grant Turner dies

ON ATTACK: Grant Turner takes on a Manurewa defender in a national league football match at Childers Road Reserve in May 1980. Turner died today after a long struggle with illness. Gisborne Herald file picture

Grant Turner bulldozed his way into the hearts of Gisborne City football fans.

The former All White midfielder died today after a long struggle with cancer. He was 64.

Turner joined Gisborne City in 1980, when the club re-entered the national league after being relegated in 1976.

He was an immediate hit. Fast, skilful, tireless and aggressive, Turner was an integral part of a Gisborne City team who beat champions Mt Wellington on their own ground and finished runners-up in their first year back in the league.

He was selected for the New Zealand team who beat Mexico 4-0 in 1980 and in May 1981 scored against Australia in Sydney with a header that is still celebrated as one of the most significant goals in New Zealand football. It set the All Whites on the road to Spain and the 1982 World Cup finals.

Only striker Brian Turner managed more goals than Grant Turner's eight in the qualifying campaign.

Turner also scored a vital goal in front of 95,000 people in Jakarta, and his wholehearted approach endeared him to Kiwis across the sporting spectrum.

However, a serious ankle injury ruined his dreams of playing in Spain and hopes of a European contract.

His strike rate in "A" internationals topped one in every three games. He represented New Zealand in "A" internationals 42 times from 1980 to 1988, scoring 15 goals.

In Gisborne, he thrilled crowds with his explosive running and shooting. A natural athlete, he combined a shrewd football brain with a fearless approach to the physical side of the game. He played for Gisborne from 1980 to the early part of the 1985 season. His last game for the club in this period was an exhibition match against the All Whites to mark the opening of the new grandstand. In 1988, when Colin Walker was player-coach, Turner made a short-term return to the team in a defensive role.

He was the club's player of the year in 1984, when Gisborne City won the Air New Zealand Cup and the national league, and reached the final of the Chatham Cup.

Raised in the Hutt Valley, Turner had a tough childhood and is quoted in the book All Whites '82 as saying he could have gone down a "destructive path", if not for the influence of his mother Thelma and his grandfather Reginald Chapman. His wife Lyn and daughter Rachel were the constants in his adult life, and in football Gisborne City coach Kevin Fallon brought out the best in the rough diamond from the Hutt.

Turner also played for Hutt Valley/Wellington teams Hungaria, Stop Out, Petone, Miramar Rangers and Wellington United, and in 1982 had a brief spell with South Melbourne Hellas. In his latter years, he lived and worked in the Bay of Plenty, and coached Tauranga City with former Gisborne City teammate John Whitley.

But Gisborne people will remember him most for his displays at Childers Road Reserve . . . passionate, often skilful and always entertaining. — with additional information from The New Zealand Herald