New Plymouth Boys High School v Wellington College Football Traditional
Diamond Jubilee 1952-2012

2012 marked the Diamond Jubilee of the first and most played Wellington College Football Traditional - the annual Wellington College v New Plymouth Boys High encounter. It has been a very important part of Wellington College football history.

The first game was at New Plymouth on July 12th 1952 - NPBHS scored the first of the hundreds of goals that have been netted over 60 years but Wellington College squeaked in with a 3-2 victory.

For many years it was the only football Traditional and each year’s Wellingtonian would have a full match and trip report. The reports make great reading.

In 1957 this Traditional was the curtain-raiser to the All Whites v FC Austria "Test" and before a gathering crowd, the Coll keeper stopped a penalty to enable WC to win at Athletic Park.

While the young men of New Plymouth welcomed the regular opportunity to play Coll, the young women of that City were helpful as well. On many occasions the boarders of the New Plymouth Girls High organised a dance for the visiting team. The 1958 WC coach reported "The boys soon forgot how tired they were".

There have also been wonderful accounts of snow fights between the teams on Mt Egmont (Mt Taranaki), the WC squad being stranded in a rail car after slips closed the line en route home, and matches played on grounds that had so much surface water, the ball floated. This is a game that is always held, regardless of conditions. In one year an Industrial dispute meant the fixture could not be held at New Plymouth so it was played at Wanganui instead!

While over these years, WC have had the most victories, NPBHS have enjoyed the biggest win :8-0 in 1963 at Kelburn Park. That win was part of a string of six years in which NPBHS were undefeated.

In recent years the matches have been very close and WC and NPBHS have also, in the last decade, often met again in the same year at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Nationals.

On the 23rd of July 2012, a new chapter in this long story was written when this encounter was held for the first time on the artificial turf of the Sir Ron Brierley field. 

(If you want to read more on the 1952 Traditional, then click here).

NPBHS V WC Football Traditionals - Match by Match

60 Years of Football Rivalry Since 1952

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