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<blockquote data-quote="Andronicus" data-source="post: 594327" data-attributes="member: 70420"><p>The shield means a lot for the smaller provinces.</p><p></p><p>The Hawke's Bay tenure in the late 60s was a magic time. I was a young journalist and helped cover the games for the Napier Daily Telegraph. Flew to Hamilton to see the Bay take the shield off Waikato, then witnessed every defence from the press box at McLean Park.</p><p></p><p>Each challenge day began with a street parade headed by Hawkeye, a huge representation of a magpie. Then at one game mini Hawkeye - a guy dressed in a magpie costume - was hatched out of an egg in the middle of the field. Crazy, but great fun.</p><p></p><p>Special seating was erected at the park and capacity crowds of around 25,000 saw each game.</p><p></p><p>Funnily enough the Bay side had the log for three years but never won the final match of each season. There were draws with Wellington and Auckland, before the loss to Canterbury.</p><p></p><p>Coach Colin LeQuesne was a genius, grumpy old bugger but he knew his stuff. Lock Karaan Crawford was discovered playing basketball in a Maori community just south of Hastings, hadn't played rugby, but Colin turned him into a star.</p><p></p><p>He found Ian Macrae, now president of the NZRFU, playing on the West Coast and helped turn him into a magnificent player and eventually a great All Black.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Andronicus, post: 594327, member: 70420"] The shield means a lot for the smaller provinces. The Hawke's Bay tenure in the late 60s was a magic time. I was a young journalist and helped cover the games for the Napier Daily Telegraph. Flew to Hamilton to see the Bay take the shield off Waikato, then witnessed every defence from the press box at McLean Park. Each challenge day began with a street parade headed by Hawkeye, a huge representation of a magpie. Then at one game mini Hawkeye - a guy dressed in a magpie costume - was hatched out of an egg in the middle of the field. Crazy, but great fun. Special seating was erected at the park and capacity crowds of around 25,000 saw each game. Funnily enough the Bay side had the log for three years but never won the final match of each season. There were draws with Wellington and Auckland, before the loss to Canterbury. Coach Colin LeQuesne was a genius, grumpy old bugger but he knew his stuff. Lock Karaan Crawford was discovered playing basketball in a Maori community just south of Hastings, hadn't played rugby, but Colin turned him into a star. He found Ian Macrae, now president of the NZRFU, playing on the West Coast and helped turn him into a magnificent player and eventually a great All Black. [/QUOTE]
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