Batts to You!

Grant Batty

Grant Batty was one of the smallest yet feistiest All Blacks of all time and played in many Petone v MSP games for the Scarlets. During his time in Wellington he wrote a regular column, this one appeared at the start of the 1979 season. Murray Blandford was recently handed a scrapbook kept by our current Patron Bim Blandford during the 70’s and 80’s and we believe it describes exactly how the club was viewed from outside the Village and reinforces the great Pride we have in our club.

While playing rugby in Wellington in the early 1970s, it never ceased to amaze (annoy?) me how very average club players in the Petone B team could become, overnight, very good Senior A players when required to play for the Petone First XV.

During my years in Wellington, I never came to grips with the motivating factor behind this seemingly remarkable change. Having now had a number of seasons upon which to reflect, this phenomenon I now put down simply to one basic five letter word – Pride.

Pride in the Petone club’s traditions. Pride in the Petone colours and, finally, that great Pride all individual Petone players have in themselves.
Of course, this Pride “thing” is not unique to the Petone club – it is possibly the greatest single motivator for most of our All Blacks – Pride in the great record of All Black teams, Pride in the tradition of past All Black teams, Pride in New Zealand and, Finally, the great pride in oneself when selected to play for one’s country.

I don’t really know if you’ve understood what I’ve been trying to say – all I wanted to do was pay a tribute to Petone, and to pay a tribute also to Graham Mourie’s 1978 All Blacks, who like those Petone B players who became when required even better than the A players.
Possibly, this is only because of this Pride “thing”.

Memoirs archive