For almost 40 years (from 1953 to 1992) Iain Gallaway was regarded as the voice of Carisbrook. He made his name commentating on cricket, but he also covered hundreds of rugby matches. In this excerpt he reports on a club game in Dunedin in 1976. Gallaway had been a first-class cricketer and an international rugby referee, and he was also a distinguished lawyer.
Transcript
In what was by far the most stirring match of the season, Varsity A with a wealth of possession from all phases of play and a territory advantage for 80% of the game defeated Green Island by nine points to three and so took the 1976 championship by a single point. Not a try was scored, but this didn't detract from the great tension and the high excitement for the biggest club crowd of the season as the players from both sides went about their business with a purpose which hasn't always been present in senior rugby this season. With the backs knocking each other over in terrific style and no man standing in the forwards with feet really working in the rucks. It was a remarkable game in that all the points were achieved by one method, the dropped goal. Green Island were the first up after only two minutes.
Commentary: Well, their rucking for the ball now, no sign of it coming back. One of the Green Island players on the ground, it's coming back now with ChapmanSmith he drops goal, oh ChapmanSmith dropped the goal! He's done what he did last week but from further out this time and that was a left footer that time.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Reference: Iain Gallaway, Not a cloud in the sky. Auckland: HarperCollins, 1997.
Sound file from Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. Reference: 26524
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