Pioneers of Rugby in Wellington 092: George Martin

The Hutt Valley has long been a hotbed of sporting talent and achievement.

There would be fewer more gifted all-round sports people out to come out of there than George Martin.

Lifelong Lower Hutt stalwart George Martin excelled in athletics, rugby and rugby league from a young age, and later played softball and golf to a high level.

As a rugby player, he will forever be known for his performance for Wellington against the touring British and Irish Lions in 1950.

A specialist centre, he was a hard tackler who stood out marking their star midfielders Bledynn Willams and Jack Matthews.

Martin was born in Wellington on 26 January 1931. He grew up attending Randwick Primary School and the now defunct Hutt Valley Memorial College.

He spent three seasons in his school’s First XV, before leaving school and joining the Hutt club, aged 16. Martin spent his first two years at the club in 1947 and 1948 playing for the Hutt fifth grade teams.

The Martins from Moera were a strong sporting family – six boys and one girl. Their father, Bill, was a handy boxer.

George was one of two Martin brothers alongside Pat to play for the club around this time. Dick was a very good league player for the old Korodale club and represented Wellington at league. He was later club captain of the Randwick League club. Jack, the second eldest of the brothers, played for the Eastbourne rugby club (then a senior 1 side). At a time when Eastbourne had several Wellington reps, Jack represented Wellington (also at centre) for two years before WW2. He was “probably the best centre the Club has fielded”, according to the Eastbourne RFC centenary publication.

Martin did not play in 1949 – as he was preparing himself for the British Empire Games held at Auckland in February 1950.

Nicholas Boyack, in an article about Martin shortly after his death in 2017, wrote that he was a Wellington champion in shot put, discus and javelin, but decided his best chance of making it to the Empire Games was in the pole vault – an event he had not previously attempted.

Martin finished sixth.

Returning to rugby in 1950, he made the Hutt Senior team who were in the Senior A Championship but amongst the second-tier teams competing for the Jubilee Cup.

Nevertheless, his performances attracted the Wellington selectors who were looking for the next generation of talented players after an inconsistent last two years in the late 1940s.

After playing for Wellington in a 13-16 loss to Taranaki on 14 June, Martin was selected to line up against the touring British Isles on 24 June.

The 1950 British Lions are regarded as being one of the most exciting international sides to visit New Zealand. Playing expansive, attractive rugby, they were popular everywhere they went. Their record was played 23, won 17, lost five and drew one. The All Blacks won the test series 3-0, with he fourth being the draw.

The Lions raced to a 12-0 lead over Wellington (20-0 in today’ scoring). Wellington came back with a try to Marist’s Mick Hourigan involving Ron Jarden and Martin, and they then kicked a penalty to make the final score 12-6.

Martin was Wellington’s Player of the Match.

A subsequent report in the Rugby Weekly praised his performance. “But the player who took the fancy of the crowd was a robust young man at centre. His name was George Martin, who in the same year represented New Zealand in the Empire Games pole vault. He tackled with all the vehemence his great physical condition could muster. Opposed by the noted crash tackler Dr. Jack Matthews, young Martin gave rather better than he took and left the ground one of the heroes of the game.”

Martin played in 11 matches for Wellington in 1950, a season which continued the pattern of the previous two seasons of being lean pickings. Wellington won just three of 11 fixtures.

He returned for his second and final season of Senior rugby at Hutt in 1951. Hutt was a competitive mid-table side and they earned the nickname ‘Giantkillers’. A highlight was beating Petone to win the McBain Shield for the third time.

Boyack’s article from 2017 continues the story:

“Match reports suggested he had a big future in rugby but instead of focusing on the All Blacks, he put an advert in the Sydney Morning Herald, advertising his services as a centre.

Three rugby league clubs responded and in 1951, after two more matches for the Wellington rugby team, he signed up with the North Sydney Bears.”

He spent four years playing rugby league for the Bears, and in 1952 he was named one of the top five league players in Australia and the following year he played for the Rest of Australia against the Kangaroos.

Returning home, he played for Randwick in Lower Hutt and played softball for the Cardinals cub and went on to represent the Hutt Valley and be chosen for New Zealand.

In 1958 he played league for Wellington at the Basin Reserve against Great Britain.

Martin also took up another sport and excelled in it – golf.

He was a member of the Shandon Golf Club and was their junior, intermediate and senior title and set a course record.

That wasn’t all for Martin, he was a gifted artist and became a graphic designer, artist and illustrator and worked at the Avalon TV studios.

He also designed the Kingfisher logo that the Randwick rugby league club still uses today.

Martin died in Lower Hutt on 18 May 2017, aged 85.

REFERENCES

• The Post 17 June 2017 obituary by Nicholas Boyack: https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/93227105/life-story-george-martin-rugby-league-pioneer-and-gifted-artist
• The Evening Post and Dominion newspapers, June 1950
• Hutt Rugby Football Club. Jubilee Celebrations, Easter 1962, Souvenir Booklet.
• The Visitors – The History of International Rugby Teams in New Zealand by Rod Chester, Neville McMillan. MOA Publications, Auckland, 1990
• Rugby Weekly Souvenir Edition. British Isles v Wellington, 25 June 1966