St Helen’s ArchivePreserving the past for the future
Five
Transcript:
This is part five in the seven part audio trail sharing the tours of the New Zealand All Blacks in the UK between 1905 and 1989. This part explores two tours in the 1960’s, the first in 1963-64 and the second in 1967. The object of focus for this part is another jersey from the 63’ tour, but due to the crises of the day, there is necessarily no material legacy from the 67’ tour. More on this shortly.
To begin with the tour of 1963, the All-Blacks returned to form with a near repeated invincible tour. They won each test match, with exception to Scotland played on the 18th of January 1964, that ended in a nil to nil draw. They did also lose to Newport on the 30th of October, 63’, 3 to nil. This was their only loss of the tour. The Wales match that was played on the 21st of December 63’ ended 6-nil to the All Blacks, played at Cardiff Arms Park. The jersey from this part in the trail did originate from this match. The jersey was worn by 'All Blacks' wing Malcolm Dick. Don Clarke scored a penalty and Bruce Watt a drop goal giving New Zealand their 6 point win. Auckland wing Malcolm Dick played 55 times for the 'All Blacks' from 1963 to 1970. He is the son of John Dick, also a wing three-quarter for New Zealand, although John Dick played in the 1937-38 season, and thus missed playing in the UK. Malcolm Dick swapped jerseys with Welsh player Dewi Bebb who played on the wing during the 1963 match, and Bebb donated this jersey to the St Helen’s archive so that we can now share it with you.
To describe the jersey itself, as is common across this trail, it is once again in New Zealand’s black, with its white collar and white buttons. The fern motif is atop a black patch on the left breast. There is a large white number four on the rear of the jersey. All in all, the jersey is in an incredible condition, maintaining its colour as well as it did on the day it was worn.
As a final note about the 1963 tour, the All-Blacks did once again return to St Helen’s where they played Swansea RFC once again. The game played on the 14th of December, ended 16-9. In Swansea, the club match against the All Blacks is known as “Dai Parkhouse’s Match” the diminutive full-back from Penclawdd bravely withstood a torrid physical onslaught, at one point being taken off the pitch for treatment, and possibly concussed. He kicked three penalties to give Swansea their 9 points and it was only in the latter stages of the game that the tourists drew clear of Swansea. An amateur video of this match is available to view on the St Helen’s Archive in the “Video & Aural” section.
As a minor additional object from this tour, the archive also still holds a ticket from this match played at St Helen’s. The ticket belonged to a Swansea RFC committee member who sat on the Grand Stand. It reminds us of the kick-off for the match, 2:30pm.
Four years later, the All-Blacks returned to the UK - this time for a much shorter tour. It had been quickly arranged to replace a tour to South Africa that was cancelled due to issues over the apartheid regime, specifically for New Zealand’s Maori players. The tour saw a much narrower range of club teams played, and Swansea RFC was not among the fixtures, However, the All-Blacks did play against a West Wales side at St Helen’s’ on the 8th of November, 1967. This was just three days before they would go on to play the Welsh international side at Cardiff Arms Park, the second test of the tour, which the All-Blacks won 13 to 6. New Zealand won each of their test matches but were denied their Grand Slam as the Irish game was cancelled due to a foot-and-mouth outbreak. As the disease was deeply affecting mainland Britain at the time of the tour, the touring side were not allowed to travel into Ireland. These restrictions continued for their return trip home, as the All-Blacks were forced to burn their jerseys and other kit. As such, necessarily, there is nothing to highlight from this tour in this part of the trail. Its absence, along with the limited fixtures only go a way to illustrate and remind us of the political challenges of the time however, both that of foot-and-mouth and issues around apartheid that this part has explored.
The next part in the trail, moving into the next decade, is the tours of the 1970’s. Two tours were undertaken by the All-Blacks, one in 1972 which the next part showcases a jersey from, and another in 1974. Please do follow on to find out more. Don’t forget to press next.