A special piece of silverware will be up for grabs when the Thames Valley premier club rugby season kicks off next Saturday.
Paeroa West and Mercury Bay will contest the inaugural Kevin Barry Memorial Cup, named after West's sole All Black and one of just two All Blacks - theother being 1953-54 flanker Bob O'Dea - out of the small Thames Valley union.
The popular and widely respected Barry, who served as president of both the Auckland Rugby Union and Barbarians Rugby Club, among other achievements on a bulging rugby CV, died suddenly in 2014, aged 78. Barry's son Liam was an All Black in 1993 and '95, thus making three All Blacks generations of the Barry family.
Barry also had a solid connection with the Whitianga-based Mercury Bay club, having played for them in his first year out of Sacred Heart College. In 1954, at just 18, he had the distinction of being chosen for Thames Valley, as he was living in Whitianga, where his All Blacks father Ned was the town policeman.
By 1962, after stints playing for Counties and Auckland, Barry was living in Paeroa, where he worked for Atlantic Oil. From the club, he toured Australia with the All Blacks, returning in time to lead Thames Valley, from lock, to their greatest rugby day, the 16-14 win over Australia at Te Aroha's Boyd Park.
Barry lodged with a man who was to become his great mate, Paeroa West fullback Terry Shaw, who famously kicked two dropped goals to help Thames Valley lower the Wallabies, and also played cricket for Northern Districts. Shaw is the father-in-law of Warren Gatland.
Paeroa West club president Jason Simpson explains the background to the cup.
"Kevin was buried the night before our prizegiving last year, so we couldn't honour him with anything like black armbands then. I've got a beach house in Whitianga and give Mercury Bay a bit of stick, so we sat down and thought this would be a good way to remember him. We put it to the union. It'll be for the first round match between the two clubs," said Simpson.
Barry's widow Justine says the match and the cup are "lovely gestures," adding that Barry had a great fondness for his rugby time in Thames Valley and would be chuffed looking down from on high. That fondness for one of rugby's finest men is reciprocated.
Justine will travel next weekend with her son Tim to present the cup. Paeroa West patron Norm McMillan, now 91, who coached that famous 1962 Thames Valley side, is also expected to be on hand. Kickoff for the match is 2pm at Paeroa's Leach's Field on Saturday March 28.
