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Sports correspondent & historian with |
Knowing when you have reached your use-by date in sport, is a fine-line between retirement at the top end of a sporting career and hanging on to illusions of past success, accompanied by declining performances.
There is no better example of sportsmen and women not acknowledging when time is up on the clock, than boxing.
Examination of top class boxers extended records, usually look like an unbeaten run of wins, followed by a title or too, then losses starting to make their presence before the realization of it is time for retirement.
This writer believes that a prestigious rugby trophy that dates back over a century should be put on the sideline, as it has reached its use-by date.
The Peace Cup was first contested in 1920 and was a rugby trophy available for competition between Auckland provincial Sub-Union representative teams.
Over the decades, Waikato, Thames Valley, Bay of Plenty and King Country Sub-Union sides, would battle for Peace Cup supremacy.
Hamilton has always been the hub of the Peace Cup regions and currently sits in second place on the all-time list with 14 season triumphs. The 1920's, saw Thames with a then large population dominate the early Peace Cup competition.
Morrinsville and Matamata joined Hamilton on the winners list in the 1930's. Pukekohe poked its nose into Peace Cup competition for a short time, winning the big prize in 1941 and 1942.
Rotorua were the team to beat in the 1950's with South Waikato being top dog during the 1960's. During the first five decades of Peace Cup rivalry, up to fourteen Sub-Unions would lodge season challenges, with crowds measured in their thousands.
The Te Awamutu name was engraved on the trophy for the first time in 1975, before going on to top the winners list, to currently sit with 19 season victories.
Enthusiasm for Peace Cup rugby started to show decline in the 1980's with mid-week fixtures dropping from the calendar.
Just six or seven Sub-Unions were the norm in Peace Cup entries during the 1990's, with the dreaded defaults starting to emerge.
As the new millennium arrived, a crisis meeting was held with nineteen then current and former sub-unions surveyed to gauge their interest in the competition.
No more than eight sub-unions indicated a positive response. In the early 2000's, a round robin format replaced the traditional challenge format.
Defaults continued to blight the playoffs and in 2006 Te Awamutu could not attract a single defence. The following four seasons saw Te Awamutu and Hamilton play a solitary game each year.
The introduction of the Stan Meads Cup regional competition in 2011, gave the Peace Cup new breath for a time, being introduced into the SMC as a challenge trophy.
Struggling interest in the Stan Meads Trophy resulted in another emergency meeting, resulting in the Peace Cup replacing the Stan Meads competition, two years ago, with little success.
The start of the current rugby season saw six regional teams show some interest, with three eventually falling by the wayside.
A late entry from Western Bay of Plenty saw them join Hamilton, Piako and a Counties team, in the 2023 Peace Cup draw.
With days to scheduled kickoff, the Bay of Plenty side were forced to signal their withdrawal due to lack of committed player numbers.
This left the once mighty Peace Cup which ranked only behind the Ranfurly Shield in rugby fans interest - reduced to a dismal three team competition.
My belief is that time should be called on the Peace Cup competition. The Peace Cup should be installed in the New Zealand Rugby Museum or such as the Waikato Rugby Union at Rugby Park in Hamilton, to honour it's lifetime of mid North Island rugby history.
