New name and new game

CLEARING THE LINES: Poverty Bay halfback Jim Duncan kicks upfield in a game at the Oval in the 1950s. Picture supplied

GREENWOOD George Duncan would never be the same after he met Neil “Chopper” Summersby.

He wouldn’t be called Greenwood by many, for a start.

Chopper had a position of authority at Williams and Kettle, where the 16-year-old Duncan lad had started work in the grocery department. Chopper didn’t like Greenwood for a name, so he called the lad Jim, and got him to play rugby.

Chopper was a prop who, in the words of Poverty Bay rugby historian Dick Glover, “went about the business of earning his nickname with a ruthless approach to both scrum and ruck”. He played for 1940s Poverty Bay and Old Boys teams with a commitment that was to serve him well as a pioneer in the emerging motel industry, when he owned the Orange Grove units in Childers Road.

Fifty consecutive games for Poverty BayIt seemed only natural, then, that the newly christened Jim Duncan, at the age of 16, would join the Old Boys third-grade team, be developed as a halfback, and go on to play 50 consecutive games for Poverty Bay in a representative career that ran from 1950 to 1956.

Yet before Chopper’s intervention, Jim’s only organised sport was a bit of hockey.

Jim Duncan had an All Black trial in 1953, and in 1955 he played for Poverty Bay in a game to mark the opening of the union’s new playing headquarters at Rugby Park on grounds that had been part of the Gisborne Racing Club’s Park Racecourse. That game was against a Barbarians Club XV that included Has Catley, Ian Clarke, Peter Jones, Bob Scott and a youthful Wilson Whineray.

Features of that game, Dick Glover says in his book celebrating 125 years of the Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union, included the “rugged tackling and sharp breaks engineered by Bob Preston (HSOB) in midfield”.

Bob Preston said this week that Jim Duncan was a “splendid” halfback and inspiring captain.

“Jimmy always led by example and had the ability to feed his outside with quick accurate passing,” Bob said.

“He was a tough, durable halfback and always played with great spirit and courage.

“He was also particularly adept at ‘working’ his forward pack.

“Jimmy gave great service to Poverty Bay rugby for many seasons and was the backbone of many notable victories.”

Jim also represented Poverty Bay-East Coast against Australia in 1955 and South Africa in 1956.

He took a lot of punishment along the way and lost some teeth. Years later, the replacements were a prop to amuse his grandchildren. If the children twisted Jim’s ear, his false teeth would pop out.

One of Jim’s teammates from lower-grade rugby in the 1940s recalled his fine passing, and “very quick” running from the base of the scrum, darting around the side.

Another teammate, Hank Nyenhuis, a Poverty Bay rep from 1956 to ’64, played alongside Jim for Old Boys in ’55 and ’56.

'Jim was "yappy" and kept the forwards on their toes'Hank, who started as a side-row forward and moved to lock, said Jim was “yappy” and kept the forwards on their toes.

“He was a real general and a hell of a nice guy.”

Old Boys won the senior championship five times in the 1950s.

“We had a good coach — Chopper Summersby,” Hank said.

“He instigated once-a-month gatherings of players and their wives at someone’s house. We had really good team spirit.

“Snow Wooster was the other lock. He was a character. Dick Jones was No.8 . . . he and I are still about; not many others.”

Jim Duncan’s brother Bryan, younger by nine years, recalls pre-game backyard practice in which Jim would get him to be the first five-eighth running on to his dive-pass.

Jim stopped playing well short of 30 to concentrate on providing for his growing family, and it was only when eldest son Phil progressed through the ranks that he reconnected with rugby and moved into administration.

His time as chairman of the Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union, from 1979 to 1982, included the divisive 1981 Springbok tour.

Jim and lifelong soulmate Jean adopted a policy to follow the grandchildrenAway from rugby, he followed a variety of occupations, always keeping an eye out for family. As family numbers grew, Jim and lifelong soulmate Jean adopted a policy to follow the grandchildren, moving first to Rotorua and then to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.

Jim died there last month, in Maroochydore, at the age of 89.

He was born in Gisborne on January 8, 1930, the eldest of Mabel and George Duncan’s three children, and attended Central School and Gisborne High School.

When he was a pre-schooler, he met his wife-to-be, Jean Foss, who was a year younger. Jean’s mother Janet would take her to the Duncans’ house, where Janet helped with housework while Mabel Duncan did her work as a seamstress. The children became firm friends, companions and, for 68 years, husband and wife.

They had four children — Phillip (known in rugby circles as Phil), Carolyn, Chris and Peter. All of them excelled in sport, and received full parental backing, no matter which code they pursued.

Chris played hockey from the time Gisborne hockey stalwart Jim Carroll spotted him walking past the Childers Road Reserve and grabbed him to make up a junior team.

Chris represented Poverty Bay at senior level and was comfortably in the veteran ranks before he stopped playing. He was also an A Grade squash player.

“Dad was always encouraging,” he said.

'He didn’t care which sport we played, as long as we played'“He didn’t care which sport we played, as long as we played. We weren’t rich, but we never went without. And if it was to do with sport, Mum and Dad made sure we got what we needed.

“Carolyn played netball for Poverty Bay.

“Peter tried rugby but he was far better at kayaking and surf lifesaving (he represented New Zealand in kayaking).”

And although Phil followed in Jim’s footsteps and played halfback for Poverty Bay (103 games), his decision to play for Marist rather than Old Boys ruffled feathers . . . not with Jim, though. He could see that with Peter Clay installed as Old Boys halfback, Phil had a better chance of a first-team place at Marist.

Phil had been on beach runs with Marist’s Bill Mabey, Peter Martin and Graeme Allen, and that friendship — along with the opportunity for first-team rugby — influenced his decision. It worked out well for Phil, who was picked for New Zealand under-21 and u23 teams.

“I got a bit of stick, but not as much as Dad,” Phil said from Australia, where he and wife Raewyn have lived since 2006, when they were headhunted to help run a petfood operation.

“Dad was working as a security officer at Watties, where a few Old Boys stalwarts worked, but it was never anything other than pretty good-natured stick.”

Phil’s spell in the Gisborne Boys’ High School first 15 from 1968 to 1970 had marked the start of Jim Duncan’s administrative career.

In 1970, the first 15 went to Australia on the first Gisborne Boys’ High School overseas tour.

Dick Glover, coach of that team, said Jim was the parent who really got stuck into the job of fundraising for the trip.

His biggest challenge was the 1981 Springbok tourIn 1979 Jim was elected chairman of the Poverty Bay union, and his biggest challenge was the 1981 Springbok tour.

“Dad was a deep thinker, and he worried about things,” Phil said.

“But it didn’t drag him down. He had a responsibility and he took it seriously.”

Phil was captain of Poverty Bay, as Jim had been. But Phil, having played rugby in South Africa during his travels in 1977, had considered not playing against the Springboks.

“I had seen what it was like,” he said.

“I was torn. In the end, I decided I wasn’t going to embarrass the family, and wasn’t going to be put off by protests.”

He recalled the “emu parade” held after protesters spread glass on the playing field, and the meat truck in which the Poverty Bay players were delivered to the ground for the game.

“The whole thing tore the country, families, apart . . . even in a little place like Gisborne.”

Away from sport, Jim Duncan was a hard worker. After his time at Williams and Kettle, he had bought a milk run that meant 3am starts. Younger brother Bryan still shudders at the memory of the three weeks he took over the run while Jim and Jean went on holiday. Stan Parker, of local cycling fame, would do the run if Jim was away on rep rugby duty. Next, Jim bought a taxi; then came the security officer job; and then he owned the Acme Dairy in Ormond Road. He ran the Sheepfarmers store on the corner of Gladstone Road and Disraeli Street, and then set up the Lytton West supermarket that turned out to be ahead of its time and is now the House of Breakthrough church.

With the Gisborne grandchildren getting older, Jim and Jean moved to Rotorua to support Carolyn and her family. Jim was soon installing waterbeds for a family business, and then — twice a week — delivering Vogel’s bread from Auckland to Gisborne.

Youngest son Peter and his wife Tanya, meanwhile, had a young family in Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast and, 25 years ago, Jim and Jean shifted to give them the Duncan grandparenting experience. Since then, Carolyn, and Phil and Raewyn have moved to Queensland, leaving Chris and his wife Maree in Gisborne to get by on annual visits from Australia.

Jim Duncan is survived by his wife Jean, children Phillip, Carolyn, Chris and Peter, 13 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, his sister Betty and brother Bryan. — by John Gillies