Children, you may have to ask your parents what this is all about ...
For once upon a time there used to be a fine old Hawke's Bay rugby-rallying song called There's Something About a Magpie and it stirred the heart like nothing else.
Well, not quite, as the sight of Kel
Tremain crashing over the line dragging a couple of "oppo" players with him always got the old ticker to speed up.
In the days of Robert Houston's magpies' warcry, there was also a great black and white bird, Hawkeye, which would roll through town during the parades, and park up on the great embankment during the games to show one and all that this was "magpie country".
Eventually, the feathers faded, the trailer wheels wore out and the great magpie was resigned to being stored away.
Until last March when Simon Tremain, a man who obviously has rugby blood in his veins, decided to bring Hawkeye out to use as a mascot for a Hawke's Bay golf team heading for a tournament at Turangi.
"We put new wheels on it, cleaned it up, got a new warrant and rego for the trailer and off we went," Mr Tremain said.
"The other teams from around the country turned up with their little teddy bear mascots and things like that - and we rolled up with the big magpie."
And now the rejuvenated Hawkeye will once again become part of the Hawke's Bay rugby landscape. It made its 2009 debut at a special breakfast this morning staged by the rugby-saturated team at Tremain Real Estate.
As the crew dined on a barbecue brekkie, passersby tooted and yelled "Come on the Bay".
"The magpie is a huge part of Hawke's Bay rugby, and if we can get a big crowd along to the park tomorrow then we'll get the boys across the line."
