Sport played a major part of Daphne Catley’s life
Daphne Evelyn Catley, March 8, 1918 – July 23, 2018
The Queen’s birthday card arrived a week after Daphne Catley turned 100. A week is a long time at 100, and Daphne was unimpressed, and duly filed the card in her office drawer, near the bottom, where it joined Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s card (Daphne was a lifelong National Party stalwart).
However, Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy’s card was on display on the table. In Daphne’s mind, that was the pecking order.
It seemed to matter not that Daphne was almost blind – she knew where everything was in her home, and everything had its place.
Daphne was born in Havelock North but at an early age moved to Te Kauwhata where her father, orchardist Tom Rodda, was put in charge of the horticultural station. The family later moved to Ruakura when Tom was appointed manager of what was then the Ruakura ‘‘farm of instruction’’.
After completing her schooling, Daphne spent a year at Brain’s Commercial College, where she confessed to niece Jenny Ross-Andrew that she did not like shorthand.
‘‘Unless they talked slowly, I wouldn’t have won a job in Parliament, but I could have kept their books.’’
Daphne’s first job was at milking machine company Alfa-Laval before moving on as bookkeeper for the NZ Cooperative Pig Marketing Association.
The family remained in the Ruakura manager’s house as there was no further up the ladder for Tom. On frosty mornings, Daphne would bike into town, a hot water bottle in the front basket an answer to frozen fingers.
With an enrolment of 120 farming students, Ruakura back then had an active social life run by a committee. There were dances, invitation only, with Daphne’s parents as hosts.
Waikato hooker and, at the time, All Black triallist, Has Catley secured an invitation to one such dance, where he met Daphne. At first Daphne thought she was dancing with Doug, Has’s brother, but they sorted it all out, and married in 1940. Daphne, at 22, was a most elegant bride, and the couple moved into an Art Deco house built for the couple on the Catley farm on Tenfoot Road, Taupiri.
Given Has’s rugby aspirations (he played his inaugural test against the Wallabies just after the war in 1946), it is just as well Daphne was a keen follower of the sport. She had had an early childhood hero, while at Te Kauwhata primary school, in Wattie Barclay, who captained the Ma¯ ori All Blacks 1926-27 tour of Britain.
It is no exaggeration to say rugby was Daphne’s passion. Before her marriage, she was a supporter of the Ruakura side, but swiftly transferred allegiance to Taupiri after she met Has. Through her long life, she could recall the smallest details about who scored what in which games down the decades.
But Daphne’s was not a passive supporter’s role on the sidelines. She soon found herself with one of the harder tasks facing a rugby supporter in the days before labour-saving devices. Her first service to rugby was taking care of the jerseys – up to 60 a week, which had to be washed, mended, ironed – and dried by the fire when it rained.
Ironically, while Daphne followed Has right through his career with Waikato and the All Blacks, she never saw him play an international, as his games were always overseas or in the South Island.
But all Taupiri and Waikato games were attended, and Daphne followed Waikato all over the North Island, including Gisborne, in all weather. On one memorable occasion the players, travelling some distance behind in the team bus, had to rescue Daphne and friend Daphne Brunskill, who they found sitting on the roof of her car in the middle of a flooded stream.
The car’s motor stood as a monument to dedication in the Catley farm woolshed for years.
Daphne was one of two female life members of the Taupiri Rugby Football Club. She was secretary and treasurer of the club executive, but also was not absent from the more menial day-to-day tasks every club needs doing, such as minding the shop, organising the catering for the rugby dinner, cutting sandwiches for afternoon teas, and wielding a paintbrush and putty knife.
A highlight for Daphne was the day Taupiri won the Haswell Catley Cup and brought it back to the clubrooms.
A strong and determined woman, Daphne nevertheless never really got over Has’s death in 1975, and his name came up daily in conversation.
She was fortunate, however, that she had involved herself deeply with her rural community and had many friends and acquaintances.
Besides rugby, golf and tennis were her main interests.
Daphne started playing golf at 45 at the Hukanui Club in 1962. By her own admission, she was ‘‘never a great golfer, but an enthusiastic one’’. She held several positions including ladies club captain and secretary. Hers was an active involvement and she recalled once suggesting a fencing scheme to keep sheep out.
‘‘They all laughed, and I thought, that’s not going to work. But the next time all the timber was there, and it was, ‘Daphne, where do you want the fences?’ ’’
A life member, long after she stopped playing in her mid-80s, she would continue to go to the golf club to catch up with ‘‘the girls’’.
She also played tennis for years and, for 30 years, organised the local Netherby club’s Maungawhare Easter Tournament with Ruth Burman for the eight clubs involved.
Daphne retired from active tennis in 2002. Of course, she was made a life member of the club.
Even with her playing days done and her eyesight failing, she filled her life with sport, continuing to watch on television. When she no longer could see, she would be found listening to the commentary.
Daphne was recognised for her service to sport with a Sport Waikato medal.
As well, for many years she was a member, and vice-president, of the Women’s Division and attended meetings well into to her 90s with the help of her many friends. Of course, again, she was made a life member.
Despite her failing eyesight, Daphne lived on her own for 40 years – longer than she was married. Fiercely independent (she wanted to renew her passport at 96), she must have been lonely at times, but when visitors dropped by, she would listen for their voice, and most times could greet them by name.
The Taupiri rugby team marked her death with a minute’s silence before their game at Rugby Park the Saturday before her funeral. Daughter-in-law Suzanne Catley said Daphne’s funeral at the club was a large one – the attendance acknowledged a woman whose service to community had resulted in an impressive list of life memberships.
‘‘It was incredible. Daphne was the last one of her generation standing – she had no personal friends left. Yet people were standing outside of the clubrooms.
For all those people to acknowledge what she did for the district was amazing.’’
Daphne was the loved wife of the late Haswell Catley; mother and mother-inlaw of Gary and Suzanne and Stuart and Sandra; grandmother of Lindy, Natasha, Lisa, Shae, and Fraser; and seven greatgrandchildren.
— Charles Riddle
A Life Story tells of a New Zealander who helped to shape the Waikato community. If you know of someone whose life story should be told, please email Charles.riddle@wintec.ac.nz