Albert Archibald Jelley (born 13 August 1922) is a New Zealand athletics coach who has coached leading New Zealand athletes including John Walker and

Hamish Carson Hamish Carson (born 1 November 1988) is a middle distance athlete from New Zealand. He represented his country at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 1500 metres. Career Carson was educated at Kapiti College. During his childhood, Carson particip ...

. He has been an athletics coach for over six decades and coached at Olympic level up until his mid-90s. Jelley has also been a teacher, an athletics administrator, and a

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

tutor.

Biography

Personal life

Jelley was born in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

on 13 August 1922, into a family that was heavily involved in sport. His father, Albert Edward Jelley, was a first-class cricket umpire. Arch Jelley has siblings: Charley, Stan and Effie. Jelley was a pupil at Mornington School from 1927 to 1935, and joined the Mornington Harrier Club at the age of 18. Jelley married Rachel in 1953, and she was his partner until her death in 2000. In 2002, Jelley married Jean, whom he had met through playing bridge, and between them have eight children, 16 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Jelley celebrated his 100th birthday in August 2022, saying “Turning 100 doesn’t feel any different than how I’ve ever felt – I think it’s just a bit of a shock when you first look at that number”.

Teaching career

After the Second World War, Jelley returned to New Zealand to begin studies at Dunedin Teachers' College and at the

University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate u ...

. He began his teaching career in rural

Wanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whangan ...

and then moved to

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

. In January 1957, he moved to

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. In 1966, he became the founding principal of Sunnybrae Normal School on the North Shore. Jelley served as principal at Sunnybrae for more than 20 years.

Coaching career

Jelley began coaching athletics in 1957. He took

Neville Scott Neville Ian Scott (25 February 1935 – 21 January 2005) was a New Zealand middle-distance runner from Ashburton. At the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Scott won the bronze medal in the men's 3 miles. He also competed ...

to the

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

final at the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...

and helped

Ian Studd Ian S. Studd (born 1943) is a former middle-distance runner from New Zealand. In 1966, Studd competed at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica, winning the bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar ...

win bronze in the mile at the

1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games The 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games were held in Kingston, Jamaica, from 4 to 13 August 1966. This was the first time that the Games had been held outside the so-called White Dominions. They were followed by the 1966 Commonwealth P ...

. At the

1976 Montreal Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phi ...

, in addition to John Walker, Jelley also coached

Rod Dixon Rodney Phillip Dixon (born 13 July 1950) is a former New Zealand middle- to long-distance runner. He won the bronze medal in the 1500 metres at the New Zealand at the 1972 Summer Olympics, 1972 Olympics in Munich, and in 1983 won the New Yo ...

and

Dick Quax Theodorus Jacobus Leonardus "Dick" Quax (1 January 1948 – 28 May 2018) was a Dutch-born New Zealand runner, one-time world record holder in the 5000 metres, and local-body politician. Quax stood for Parliament for the ACT Party in 1999 and 2 ...

. Jelley has coached dozens of other leading athletes during his career, including 1988 Seoul Olympic 3000 m runner Christine Pfitzinger, two-time Olympic distance runner Robbie Johnston, 1987 World Championship marathoner Hazel Stewart, 1990 Commonwealth 10,000 m bronze medallist Barbara Moore, 1978 Commonwealth Games middle-distance representatives Dennis Norris and

Alison Wright Alison Wright (born 12 July 1976) is an English actress. She is best known for her starring role as Martha Hanson on the FX period spy drama series ''The Americans'' (2013–2017), for which she received critical acclaim and earned a Primet ...

, and former US mile record-holder Steve Scott, who was fifth in the 1988 Olympic 1500 m final. Jelley retired from coaching in 2000, to put more time into bridge and lawn bowls. However, five years later, he agreed to coach Hamish Carson, who subsequently represented New Zealand at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

in the

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

. Jelley retired from coaching once more in 2018.

Mt Albert Bridge Club

Jelley’s first wife Rachel knew he was a keen card player and encouraged him to attend the Mt Albert Bridge Club, where he has been involved since 1990. He has been a tutor since 1996 and was president for ten years from 2003.

Honours and awards

In the

1982 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1982 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countries ...

, Jelley was appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, for services to athletics. Along with

Arthur Lydiard Arthur Leslie Lydiard (6 July 1917 – 11 December 2004) was a New Zealand running, runner and athletics (sport), athletics coach. He has been lauded as one of the outstanding athletics coaches of all time and is credited with popularising the ...

, he was one of four coaches inducted into the

New Zealand Coaches Hall of Fame The New Zealand Coaches Hall of Fame is sponsored by Athletics New Zealand and the Athletics Coaches Association of New Zealand. Founded in 2006, the purpose of the Hall of Fame is to "increase the recognition and status of coach (sport), coaches." ...

. In 1987, he was awarded an International Amateur Athletic Federation Diploma. In 2007, Jelley received a

Sparc SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture originally developed by Sun Microsystems. Its design was strongly influenced by the experimental Berkeley RISC system developed ...

lifetime achievement award for coaching excellence, and an

Athletics New Zealand Athletics New Zealand (ANZ) is the national governing body for athletics in New Zealand. This includes responsibility for Track and field, cross country running, road running and racewalking. History The organisation was founded in 1887 as the ...

merit award in 2009. Jelley was appointed a

Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant (document), royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Monarchy of New Zealand, Queen of New Zealand, "for those ...

in the 2021 New Years Honours, for his work as a coach and an administrator in athletics and bridge.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jelley, Arch 1922 births Living people New Zealand athletics coaches New Zealand Olympic coaches New Zealand Officers of the Order of the British Empire Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit Sportspeople from Dunedin New Zealand contract bridge players Contract bridge administrators Schoolteachers from Dunedin New Zealand centenarians Men centenarians