Mike Carran
A figure of power and sporting integrity The late legend of New Zealand bushcraft has been honoured in a fresh biography, as Michael Fallow writes.
Mike Carran swung his axe with breathtaking power and precision. The Southland axeman, who died three months ago, emerges from a new biography as proof that intense competitiveness can cohabit with personal humility.
But not always easily, in a sport where some egos have proven flintier than the blades.
Carole Henshall’s biography Mike Carran: The Story Behind A Mighty Axeman tells how his captaincy of the New Zealand team stood among his most conflicted times – his competitive nature and national pride coming up against a profound personal distaste at failures of camaraderie in his team’s ranks.
He was, for a time, a man better regarded by his Australian rivals than some of his teammates.
Carran’s record of championship wins around New Zealand is thought to number about 180, though the man himself lightly confessed he had lost count. He chopped for New Zealand in 32 test matches, representing his country from 1965 through to the early 1980s.
He had been offered the captaincy at a time of conflict between the flinty captain Sonny Bolstad of the King Country and Jock Bentley of Wairarapa.
Though Carran stayed out of that, when the offer came for him to assume the captaincy he said he would be honoured. The North Islanders did not feel the same way.
‘‘I don’t think Sonny ever spoke to me, after that.’’ he said.
Touring Australia, he would call a team meeting and nobody would show up. He made his captain’s calls regardless.
The Aussies were unimpressed by the treatment Carran was receiving.
‘‘I think,’’ says Henshall, ‘‘that Mike had a very strong sense of personal ethics, which transcended the natural rivalry between competitors and enabled him to see the good in ‘rivals’.
‘‘It also led him to condemn the unfair behaviour he perceived towards himself and others, from those who were supposed to be their comrades.
‘‘I can’t speak to the hostility between the North and South
Islands but it may have coloured his views of the Australians, who on the whole seemed to treat him better than his own countrymen.’’
The mighty Australian giant David Foster, 18 years younger than Carran, acknowledges targeting him early in his own career only to find he could match, but not better, the ageing veteran.
Foster – a hearty man entirely comfortable with his own ego, justifiably on the basis of his status as holding the World Woodchopping Championship title for 21 consecutive years – much later assessed their respective careers in brook-noargument terms. ‘‘Back in Mike Carran’s day, he was the best.
‘‘Back in David Foster’s day, he was the best. We have our days.’’
Henshall believes Carran’s story is about more than his competitive success.
He was fortunate to have both raw talent and physical strength but it was his commitment and determination that enabled him to rise above his peers.
‘‘Various people in the book also comment on the lengths he would go to in analysing his shortcomings, and his willingness to listen to advice which could benefit him.
‘‘Yes, he was competitive, but he was competitive for his team and for his country, rather than on a purely individual level.’’
She finds it telling how struck he was by something legendary athletics coach Arthur Lydiard, whose book Carran read as a schoolboy, had said to Peter Snell.
Essentially this: Snell had put in the hard work. So he was the one who deserved to win.
‘‘Perhaps,’’ says Henshall, ‘‘Mike felt that winning was the natural conclusion to a huge input of time and effort, and was therefore not to be overly crowed about.’’
His own lack of fiery temperament did not mean Carran was a dainty flower when it came to physical conflict, including raw-boned pub brawling, which he describes in the book in sardonic, dismissive terms; as an unimpressed participant, though still alert to what constitutes a good yarn.
The biography Mike Carran: The Story Behind A Mighty Axeman, will be launched at the Thornbury Vintage Museum on August 13. Copies will be available in Paper Plus shops throughout Southland.