He’s proud to wear the city colours
We continue our series on the secret lives of our city councillors with Colin Williams talking to one of the city’s great team players.
Blair Griffiths is a good team man.
And at 43, he is training for another season of Upper Hutt sport.
‘‘Yep, I’m back into it, all the pre-season work and I still love it, just as much as ever.’’
He will turn out in the Reserve grade for the Rams’s Pirates in his fourth season back in rugby after a long league career with the Upper Hutt Tigers’ club.
‘‘I’m easily the oldest there [of the Pirates], I’d be 10 years older than the next guy I reckon.’’
The owner of Hillside Auto Wreckers continues to make time for his game,
‘‘I had two seasons with the Prem Reserves when I came back and really enjoyed it. But there were times when I had to have some games off.
‘‘And that’s hard to take when you’ve training bloody hard to get into the starting side. You never want to lose your place.’’
The Pirates train once a week and with that happening after Wednesday council meetings, it finally gives Griffiths more time at home with his wife and family.
Sundays will also find Griffiths out road running. ‘‘I go out for 40 minutes or more, mostly around the river and our hills, I love it,’’ the Silverstream resident said.
He accepts this is an oldfashioned recovery regime but has never adopted the gym-based approach of many younger players.
After college [and rugby] at Heretaunga Griffiths was lured to league during his debut club union season.
‘‘I got scalped to go and play for the Wainui under-19s, on the wing. There was a bit of money going around then but things changed, it dried up and the next season I was with the Tigers and playing in the forwards.’’
Griffiths was a reserves’ stalwart when the Tigers were a massive force in Wellington and the club game was bigger than today. His last league season was 2013.
Late last year he played league at a Pan Pacific Masters tournament on the Gold Cast with teammates from the 1990s, most of whom live in Australia.
‘‘I’d played with all of them here so it was great. We played 20-minute halves and six games in three days with no substitutes.
‘‘It was real hot too, real hard work. One day we kicked off and it was 34 degrees.’’