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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 11 (February 1, 1935)

A Railway Express — W. A. Woodger, Champion Sprinter

page 46

A Railway Express
W. A. Woodger, Champion Sprinter.

I Wonder how many railwaymen of the present generation recognise in W. A. (Billy) Woodger, Assistant Traffic Manager at Auckland, one of the greatest amateur sprinters New Zealand (and Australia for that matter) has yet produced. Grown something tending to portliness in middle age, nevertheless he still preserves a general indication of the greyhound build that made him such a striking figure in both appearance and action in his palmy days—the seasons 1908–09 and 1909–10. Tall beyond the average of first-class sprinters, and thin for his height, Woodger was naturally a very long strider, and a most graceful, effortless runner. Even when fully extended he never appeared to be right out, that phenomenal stride (like Gloaming's or Phar Lap's on the racecourse) still giving the appearance of almost leisurely ease.

Woodger was one of my boyhood heroes. I knew him first at the old Mount Cook Boys' School, in Wellington (now a thing of the past). When I was still a small boy in the lower standards he was in his last year, and easily the champion runner of a school that was noted for its success in schoolboy sport.

Then he left, and for years all that remained was the memory of his speed and graceful running. The years rolled on. My own contemporaries were on the verge of manhood; those of his age at school had reached the heights in various sports; but never a word of Woodger. However, in the season 1905–06, the Wellington Centre allotted its 100 yards championship to the Masterton Club, and rumours came through to the city of a sprinting phenomenon in the Wairarapa who was sure to win it. A great crowd of us went to Masterton that Anniversary Day, to find that the newcomer was none other than Woodger, whom none of us had seen for years. He was then stationed, I think, at Eketahuna, and was already a married man. He did not win that hundred, but only lack of condition and racing experience beat him. At seventy-five yards he looked an easy winner, but in the last bit both the late Brian Goodbehere (then fresh from Wellington College) and W. H. Pollock (beyond all doubt the finest all-round runner New Zealand has ever produced) passed him, Goodbehere winning by inches.

Once more Woodger faded into obscurity. In the next two and a half years athletics in Wellington suddenly blossomed. With such sprinters as Harry Henderson, Ted Fisher, Goodbehere, and Jimmy Wilton carrying all before them, Woodger was forgotten. Then, at the beginning of the 1908–09 season he was transferred to Wellington. By that time Henderson and Fisher were off the scene—luckily for them. Fine hundred yards runner as was the former, and sterling at the furlong as was Fisher, it soon became apparent that Woodger was of a higher class. Still it looked for a time as if he were doomed to disappointment. In the provincial hundred championship, Goodbehere (to whom Woodger was then conceding 2 1/2 yards in handicaps) beat him in one of the most extraordinary races I have ever seen. The race was run into a gale of wind, which pulled Woodger up standing. It was the last time Woodger was ever beaten in a championship.

Then came the New Zealand championships at Dunedin, in March, 1909. Wonderful interest centered in the two sprints, for in Christchurch they, too, had discovered a wonder, the late Ronald Opie, then a boy of eighteen. It was a typical Dunedin wet day, with the old Caledonian ground ankle deep in mud. As they lined up for the final of the hundred the excitement was intense. Opie got away first, and for eighty yards it looked as if he would win; but then Woodger's remorseless stride told. He won by nearly a yard in 10 1–5 secs.; great time for the day. The furlong was sensational, for with the gun Woodger shot out like a startled stag, and Opie was never in the hunt, Woodger winning with the greatest of ease in 22 4–5 secs. only 1–5 sec. outside the then New Zealand record.

That made Woodger the logical sprinting choice in our team for the Australasian Championships to be held at Brisbane the following August. There he met Nigel Barker and beat him in both the hundred and the furlong. Woodger's hundred on that occasion was in many ways the finest effort of his career. After winning the furlong on a Wednesday he was taken ill, and on the Saturday actually got out of bed to contest the hundred.

The next season at Auckland Woodger again won the hundred and furlong New Zealand championships from Opie. In the furlong, on a wet track, he clocked 21 4–5 secs., but a slight following wind precluded any claim for record. On his way back to Wellington Woodger, though obviously ill, ran at a meeting in Palmerston, and the effort finished his career.

During this year (1910) Woodger won a voting contest run by the “New Zealand Times,” the prize being a free trip to England. He was there in 1911, when the first Empire Games were held, and though completely out of training, gave English enthusiasts one glimpse of his prowess. Not at the Games, but at a meeting in the Midlands he ran in a relay, his speed, stride and beautiful action producing a big impression.

Woodger's championship career, in the course of which he won four New Zealand and two Australasian championships, was compressed into a period of only twelve months, when he was already of an age (twenty-five) when most sprinters are on the down grade. A year or two later Mr. Richard Coombes (one of the best judges of an athlete Australia and New Zealand have ever known), writing in the Sydney “Referee,” placed Woodger first of all the amateur hundred yard runners he had seen in this part of the world—ahead even of Macpherson and Hempton.

Woodger's greatest handicaps were a delicate constitution and lack of physical strength. He could not stand up to continuous hard racing or training.

What a contrast in this respect between him and his great rival, Ronald Opie! Short, stocky, Opie was all strength, power and sheer determination. In action he was all arms and legs whirling along. Where Woodger loped along gracefully Opie literally hurled himself through the air. Woodger's retirement gave him his opportunity. At the New Zealand Championships of 1911, at Christchurch, he won the 100 yards in 10 1–10 secs., the furlong in 22 secs., and the quarter in 50 4–5 secs. That year, too, he went Home to represent New Zealand at the Empire Games. Prior to that gathering he won the Crewe Hundred (then one of the most important amateur sprints in England), but more or less broke down before the Games. Returning to the Dominion, Opie won another treble, the hundred, furlong and quarter Australasian Championships, at Christmas, 1911, on the Basin Reserve, Wellington. No one who saw that hundred will ever forget it.

The class of both Woodger and Opie is sufficiently indicated by the fact that they were the only two New Zealanders ever to win the Australasian sprint titles.

If Woodger had only possessed half of Opie's sheer strength and hardiness he would, in my humble opinion, have been one of the greatest sprinters the amateur athletic world in all countries has ever seen. For ease and grace of action I have never seen his equal. Not even Maurice Kirksey approached him in those qualities.

page 47