Alf Chorley was an English-born

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who represented

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Playing career

Chorley played for Halifax, and Swinton before moving to New Zealand.Coffey, John and Bernie Wood ''Auckland, 100 years of rugby league, 1909-2009'', 2009. . Chorley was involved with the early years of rugby league in Auckland, playing for

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

in 1908 and competing for City in the first match sanctioned by the

Auckland Rugby League The Auckland Rugby League (ARL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in the Auckland Region of New Zealand. Founded in 1909, the ARL has played a pivotal role in the development and promotion of rugby league in Auckland and beyond. ...

in 1909. Chorley played a Test match for

in 1910 against the touring

Great Britain Lions The Great Britain national rugby league team represents Great Britain in rugby league. Administered by the Rugby Football League (RFL), the team is nicknamed The Lions. For most of the 20th century, the Great Britain team toured overseas, p ...

. Aged 36 years and 46 days old at the time, Chorley still holds the record as the oldest Kiwi.John Coffey and Bernie Wood, ''The Kiwis: 100 Years of International Rugby League'', Hodder Moa, Auckland, 2007, p. 39.

World War I and personal life

Alfred Chorley married Elizabeth Chorley in Wakefield, England, on 16 September 1897. At the time of his enlistment in the army in World War I, they were living at 72 Khyber Pass Road in Auckland. Chorley stated that his occupation was a "motorman" on his enlistment form. Chorley's war service commenced on 27 June 1916 and he was discharged on 21 January 1919, being judged 'over age to serve any longer'. By this point he would have been 44 and a half years old.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chorley, Alf 1874 births 1960 deaths Auckland rugby league team players City Rovers players English emigrants to New Zealand English rugby league players Halifax Panthers players New Zealand national rugby league team players Newton Rangers players Ponsonby Ponies players Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league players from Wakefield Swinton Lions players