HOME ON THE ‘GRAINGE’
Campbell Burnes catches up with the latest recipient of the NZR volunteer of the year award.
On any given winter saturday, you’ll find Allen Grainger at Swarbrick Park helping lay out the touchline flags, padding the goalposts or sorting the jerseys, among myriad other things that go into making a rugby club tick.
Frankton rugby Club is his second home, has been for nigh on 50 years. Did we mention he is also the President of the waikato rugby union? grainger just loves it.
He is, as he was in 2023, the team manager for the Frankton premier men, who play in division one, and helped out with the junior division too.
Fitting then, that grainger took the 2023 Charles Monro volunteer of the year gong at the nzr awards. It was the third time lucky, as it were, having been a finalist in 2004 and 2022. not that he sees it that way. “I don’t do it for the awards. I do it because I enjoy it. rugby gave me a lot, especially when I played golden Oldies in other countries. I’m just giving back. That’s what you do,” says the 76-yearold life member of waikato and the Frankton club.
everyone in waikato rugby circles knows ‘grainge’, and a good many rugby people in other provinces will have run into him. He sounds like a stand-up bloke, and that’s the impression you gain from his peers in that staunch and far-flung rugby province.
He got taken clean by surprise when they gave him the award in november. He was in Whangārei supporting Waikato at the northern region sevens when wru chief executive Carl Moon pulled a fast one on him. grainger was chatting to eric rush, two men of the supermarket trade, when he was presented with the box. All on camera too.
grainger is a waikato rugby man to his cotton socks, but he has not always been Mooloo through and through, or even diehard rugby material.
born in Lower Hutt, he played junior footy before moving to Taumarunui as a teenager, representing King Country
Colts. Then he relocated to Papakura in south Auckland, where he played for the local club. Injury hit and he switched to soccer. By 1974 he was in Hamilton playing for Hamilton AFC and winning a Cup winner’s medal.
However, in 1975 it was back to rugby with Frankton as a no 8 and later in the front-row, having previously played fullback. grainger trialled for waikato, and had two years in the Hamilton Peace Cup side in sub-union rep action. by the 1980s he was boots and all into golden Oldies, doing four world tours and appearing for the NZ Harlequins. His final game of rugby came in 2006 at Karori Park in wellington. He was pushing 60, though not quite old enough for the purple shorts (for those not to be tackled).
All through his latter playing days, he was ensconced in the Frankton club scene. He had rubbed shoulders with and absorbed lessons from great Frankton and waikato rugby men like rex Pickering, in particular (“Just a grand gentleman”), ron Hemi and Ponty reid.
“Our club has been up and down and settled in division one about 6-8 years ago. We’ve never been better off. There’s a great club atmosphere, good juniors, decent clubrooms and money in the bank,” says grainger.
As President of the union, he has another year to run in his tenure, but he is well aware of the issues surrounding the NPC and its finances. He knows the salary cap needs another chop and reckons agents need to get realistic about the landscape.
“The biggest thing for the 14 PUS is that we need to play in smaller stadiums,” he says. One of the best Mooloos displays of 2023 came in the win over Auckland at bell Park, Pakuranga, a small club venue. grainger is hopeful of better things in waikato clubland this season, with the famed Kereone back in division one and a bumper crop of teams in the often problematic under 21 grade.
In recent times, grainger was proud as punch at the 2021 NPC Premiershipwinning Mooloos, who won the title against almost all the odds, while he presided over the delayed centennial celebrations in 2022. He travels around the country supporting waikato, often with his wife Carolyn. but he’s not from the ‘back in my day’ school.
“They are such a neat bunch of guys. They always want to know you, always got time for you,” he says.
It’s not just rugby that fills Grainger’s time. He lives in Pokeno, just south of the bombays, and is chairman of the local community committee, plus he has volunteered at the Taupo Ironman for 20 years. This is a man who just loves giving back.
“I don’t do it for the awards. I do it because I enjoy it.”