The boating, musical and rugby playing Riley family

In her history of the Riley Family "The Life of Riley" Joy Carter who is descended from Oliver Riley a brother of my great grandmother Annie Riley, provides a great record of the talents within this family. I have used Joy's excellent record to capture some highlights of this very interesting family. The Riley Family Tree below helps with identifying the various family members who are the focus of this blog and how they connect with Annie.

THE RUGBY PLAYING RILEYS

Brothers Olly and Sid Riley were renowned rugby players of the early 1900s and were part of the rich history of the Ponsonby Rugby and Rugby League Clubs. Two sons of Olly Riley also displayed great rugby talents.

Oliver ("Olly") Riley

Annie's brother Olly achieved significant sporting fame as a rugby player and was also a very good yachtsman and runner.

Olly was born on 23 October 1871 at Clarence St Herne Bay. He died on 31 August 1952 at home at 11 Lawrence St Herne Bay. His obituary below provides a summary of his many achievements.

Olly grew up in Herne Bay and developed a love for the sea and sailing as a young boy. During much of his life he worked as a furniture maker and was employed in this occupation in Sydney, Australia working for his brother William between 1901 and 1904 and then in Ponsonby, from 1905 to 1939 for his brother-in-law Andrew Parkinson who had a furniture factory on Ponsonby Road. He moved between Auckland and Sydney on a number of occasions, possibly to fit in with his rugby career and also to make some money.

A newspaper article contained in Joy's account of Olly describes his rugby prowess as follows:

"Later on Olly donned Ponsonby's colours behind the brilliant Alby Braund, as a pioneer of the five-eighth's game and soon earned prominence because of his talent for quick reasoning, slickness off the mark, elusive swerves and collaring, for he seldom endeavoured to intercept passes, but dived straight at his man."

In 1893 Olly starred for Sydney's champion side Randwick and represented New South Wales against a visiting New Zealand side. The newspaper article says that when touring with the NSW side "... the quiet mannered Olly maintained his reputation on this tour as one of the headiest and best all-rounders of any age.."

Olly returned to New Zealand in 1894 and again donned the Ponsonby colours "... and with his ingratiating smile framing his black moustache, became once more the public's idol when he took to the field in his old running shoes, which he always preferred to boots." Olly was playing as late as 1907 in an Auckland B team. In 1909 he sub-managed a Ponsonby team that visited Australia. This team contained 14 Auckland and 8 New Zealand reps. and had won the local club champs.

The photo below of an Auckland Rep team shows Olly standing alongside the famous Dave Gallaher who was also a Ponsonby team mate. Gallaher later became captain of the original All Black team.

Olly married Elizabeth (Bessie) Sayers on 11th February 1901. Bessie was a dressmaker specialising in bridal gowns and outfits. Olly and Bessy went to Australia to live shortly after their marriage and it was in Australia that their sons Owen and Vic were born. They returned to Auckland in 1904 after brother William's furniture factory, where Olly was working, burned down. Olly then built a house for his family in Lawrence St, Herne Bay. Bessy did not like this house because it was damp and cold and had been built quite roughly. On an occasion when Olly was back in Australia Bessy saw a better house higher up Lawrence St and made all the arrangements to move the family in Olly's absence. It seems that Bessie often had to take care of things back in Auckland while Olly headed to Australia to make some money.

Olly seems was good at making money from various sources including his boat hire business, a harbour cruise business and betting on horse races. He also lived off his fishing and did gardening and other odd jobs.

Bessie died at the young age of 54 on 27 December 1928. This occurred during one of Olly's absences in Australia. Following Bessie's death Olly lived out the rest of his days at 11 Lawrence St taking in tenants to earn rent and continuing his various other means of making money. In the summer he sometimes lived in his boat hire sheds from where he could watch over the boats he had out on hire during the day. Olly was infrequently at home with much time spent either with his boats on the harbour, with his rugby mates or at the Gluepot pub.

Olly died at the age of 80 on 31 August 1952. Sadly he had left a gas ring going when he went to bed and died from the gas fumes in the night.

Sydney Austin Riley ("Sid")

Sid Riley was born in Ponsonby on 18 April 1878. He was a "first day" pupil at Bayfield School on 5 July 1886. Sid never married or had any children and for most of his life, when not in Australia, he lived at home at his parents' house at 1 Wallace St, Herne Bay.

Like his older brother Olly, Sid was a keen sportsman, playing both rugby and rugby league, and spent time in Australia working at his brother William's furniture factory in Sydney.

A Ponsonby Rugby Club record of the careers of Olly and Sid notes that Sid first came to notice at the age of 17 as a member of a very good junior team. This team won the championship every year from 1895 to 1898.

The photo below shows Sid as a member of an Australian rugby team that played what is considered to be the first ever game in which a national Australian rugby side played against a New Zealand 15. This was in 1903 at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Sid played as second five-eighth. New Zealand won 22-3. The New Zealand team included D. Gallagher who, as mentioned earlier, also played in a 1900 Auckland Rep team with Sid's brother Olly.

This is the Dave Gallaher (note amended spelling of his surname that his parent's adopted) who was famously the captain of the original All Black team of 1905-1906 and who sadly was killed in 1917 at Passchendaele, Belgium. Gallaher played for the Ponsonby Rugby Club at the same time as Olly Riley.

On his return to New Zealand in 1904 Sid converted to Rugby League and was picked for a team to travel to Australia.Unfortunately he could not make the trip. He continued to play league up to veteran stage and in 1912 made his one and only appearance in a New Zealand League team. The match was only against a team from South Auckland but is officially acknowledged as a match played by a national team. This enables Sid to be regarded as one of the few who has completed a unique double of being in national teams for two countries and in the two different codes.

The wonderful photo below shows Sid in his latter years when he was at the Ranfurly War Veteran's Home. Sid had served in WW1 during 1916. Sid died on 31 March 1964.

Lawrence ("Spot") Riley

It was almost inevitable that Ollie would produce two sons with great football skills, namely Lawrence and Brian Riley.

Lawrence was born on Ollie and Bessie's return to Auckland in 1905. He was given the nickname Spot because he was of short stature and was hard to spot on the football field. It was said that players would tell others "....If you can spot Spot , pass the ball to him as he is bound to score a try."

A Players Gallery write up in 1930 describes Lawry Riley as "Ponsonby's Brilliant Centre" and sets out some of his history with the club.

Young Lawry Riley came to the front in his school days when, as a member of the Bayfield School XV he assisted that team to the position of runner up in the 1917 primary school competition. In 1920 he played fifth grade for Ponsonby when that team annexed the championship.Spot went on to have a great career and like his father and uncle shifted across to league. He played for Ponsonby League Club from 1924 and each year through to the 1930s. In 1930 he was selected for a New Zealand team to tour Australia. Unfortunately he was unable to make this tour for personal reasons.

The gallery write up mentions that Spot was very popular with his team mates with a ready wit that endeared him to all. He is considered to have been the "brains of the side" and "followers of the sport have seen most of his sensational movements from the centre and those who witnessed him in action against City the other week will not readily forget the manner in which he tore their defence to shreds by his elusive, penetrating dashes."

Spot married Daphne Wood in 1927. They had three sons Leonard, Allan and William and of course they all played league. They also had a daughter Peggy. Spot worked at the Auckland Harbour Board as a Purchasing Officer, retiring early because of ill-health. He died at age 81 in 1986.

Brian Riley

Brian was the youngest of Olly and Bessie's children. He attended Bayfield Primary then Auckland Grammar from 1929 to 1931. His rugby playing started in 1927 as a 12 year old school boy playing for Bayfield primary. He continued with rugby at Auckland Grammar and then with the Ponsonby Rugby Club in 3rd grade.

In 1932 age 17 Brian made the switch to league playing for the Ponsonby Rugby League Reserve Grade team. He was put into the senior side after only two games. In this team he played alongside Bob Scott who some years later switched to rugby and went on to greatness as an All Black. In 1935 Brian played for an Auckland Rep team and in 1937 was picked for a Kiwi team to play the Aussies. Although picked for a Kiwi team in 1938 he was unable to make this tour. War interrupted his rugby career for a time. After finishing his war service Brian and his wife moved to the King Country where Brian took over his aunt and uncle's farm. As there was no local league club Brian reverted to playing rugby union again.

Brian is on the left in the above photo- it is not captioned so I am unable to identify the year or name of other player.

In 1949 Brian and Val moved to a 10 acre block at Parakai Helensville and Brian set up as a Public Accountant for a couple of years and then as a North Auckland Farmers Agent for another two years. He then bought a farm "Awakoa" at Birdsall Rd, Whangateau in July 1954.

On arriving at Whangateau Brian offered his coaching services to the Omaha Rugby Club. He coached at all levels and became Club President. He also organised the building of the club premises on the Whangateau Domain. Sadly the Omaha Rugby Club was wound up during Brian's presidency. The old rugby club rooms have since been adopted by the Rodney Rams Rugby League Club which seems fitting given Brian's success in that code.

Brian and Val had four sons Peter, Terrence, Patrick and Christopher.