HBHS wins back 'The Boot'

HBHS 1st XV scored a convincing win over Tauranga Boys’ High School on Saturday, in front of a supportive crowd and the cameras of Sky TV.  The final score was 30 - 6, which means that ‘The Boot’ has returned to HBHS after a brief sojourn on the coast.

‘The Boot’ (pictured right) is a trophy constructed from one of the rugby boots of Don Clarke, a legendary Waikato sportsman.

Donald Barry Clarke (10 November 1933–29 December 2002) was a New Zealand rugby union player who played 89 times (31 of these were test matches) as an All Black from 1956 until 1964. He was best known for his phenomenal goal kicking ability that earned him the nickname "The Boot".

Clarke was first selected to play rugby for the Waikato rugby team at the age of 17 in 1951. In 1956 he helped the Waikato side to a 14-10 victory over the touring South African Springbok side.  This helped his cause in being selected to play in the third All Black test match of the Springbok tour.

Over his entire All Black career Clarke scored 781 points, a record that stood for 24 years until it was broken by Grant Fox in 1988. Clarke also played 27 first class cricket matches, mostly for Auckland and Northern Districts, taking five or more wickets in an innings on four occasions. His best performance came for Northern Districts against Central Districts in January 1963, when he claimed 8/37 in the second innings.  At the time, this was a record innings return for Northern Districts in first-class cricket.

Clarke moved to South Africa in the 1970s and coached school boy rugby in Johannesburg. In 1997, he was seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident, when a 15-tonne truck hit his utility vehicle.  Don Clarke passed on, on December 29, 2002. We are proud to have regained a memento of his sporting prowess.