Arthur Hardgrave (1882–1953) was a New Zealand

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 ...

player 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 ...

. His son Roy Hardgrave also played for

as well as a very long club career where he was one of New Zealand's most prolific ever try scorers with

Newton Rangers The City Newton Dragons are a defunct New Zealand rugby league club that was based at Victoria Park, Auckland. The club was created in 1948 by a merger of two original clubs, the City Rovers and Newton Rangers. Both the Rovers and the Rangers par ...

, St Helens,

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

, and Mount Albert.

Playing career

Rugby union

In an article in the

Auckland Star The ''Auckland Star'' was an evening daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, from 24 March 1870 to 16 August 1991. Survived by its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Star'', part of its name endures in ''The Sunday Star-Times'', created i ...

of 1929 at a farewell dinner for his son Roy Hardgrave who was going to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

after signing with the St Helens club, Hardgrave was asked to comment on his career. He humbly declined to comment but others did, and as a result the Star published the following comments: "Shaver" Hardgrave played his first football in

New Plymouth New Plymouth () is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, in Devon, from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. The New Pl ...

, and when really quite a diminutive youngster at the age of 16 he took the field in representative football. Throughout his football career, he played fullback, and it was in 1899 that he represented Taranaki against Wanganui and other provincial sides, making a name for himself as one of the finest custodians in the game. When nearing the height of his career he left for the

South African War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

, but on returning to the Dominion he again found his way to the Taranaki town, where he continued playing for his old club, the Star. Years rolled on and 'Shaver" rapidly climbed the ladder of football fame. He was an idol among the fans. The writer has heard him referred to by players of that time as a "wonder". He was the greatest kick of the day, and could punt with uncanny accuracy with either right or left foot, while he was a deadly tackler and as cool as a cucumber. In 1908 he played against Harding's English team, and it was when the first Auckland team went on tour of New Zealand and visited

that he changed over to the league code".

Rugby league

Hardgrave played for

Taranaki Taranaki is a regions of New Zealand, region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano Mount Taranaki, Taranaki Maunga, formerly known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the ...

against

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 ...

1908 This is the longest year in either the Julian or Gregorian calendars, having a duration of 31622401.38 seconds of Terrestrial Time (or ephemeris time), measured according to the definition of mean solar time. Events January * January ...

1909 Events January–February * January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escapes death by fleeing across ice floes. * January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. * Janu ...

and again in 1911 when he kicked three goals.Coffey, John and Bernie Wood ''Auckland, 100 years of rugby league, 1909–2009'', 2009. . Rugby league in Taranaki developed well in 1908 and 1909 but there was a shortage of grounds and the game essentially disappeared. As a result Hardgrave moved to

and joined the

Manukau Manukau (), or Manukau Central, is a suburb of South Auckland, New Zealand, centred on the Manukau City Centre business district. It is located 23 kilometres south of the Auckland Central Business District, west of the Southern Motorway, ...

club. On his debut for Manukau he scored a try and kicked a goal in a 19 to 5 loss to a strong Ponsonby side. Scoring records were very patchy for the Manukau team with the newspapers often failing to send out reporters to matches in

Onehunga Onehunga is a suburb of Auckland in New Zealand and the location of the Port of Onehunga, the city's small port on the Manukau Harbour. It is south of the city centre, close to the volcanic cone of Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill. Onehunga is ...

and therefore it is unknown how many points Hardgrave scored for Manukau beyond the 2 tries, 1 conversion and 2 penalties he was credited with during the 1912 season. In

1912 This year is notable for Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the ''Titanic'', which occurred on April 15. In Albania, this leap year runs with only 353 days as the country achieved switching from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar by skippin ...

, Hardgrave whilst at Manukau was selected for the New Zealand national side who toured Australia. No test matches were played on the tour but Hardgrave became the 74th player to represent New Zealand. Following the tour, Hardgrave was part of the

side that defeated

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

10–3 in a return match at Victoria Park. The Manukau senior team collapsed during the

1913 Events January * January – Joseph Stalin travels to Vienna to research his ''Marxism and the National Question''. This means that, during this month, Stalin, Hitler, Trotsky and Tito are all living in the city. * January 3 &ndash ...

season and he was granted a transfer to North Shore however it was near the season end and he did not take the field in either of their two remaining games. In the

1914 This year saw the beginning of what became known as the First World War, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip ...

season Hardgrave joined the newly formed Otahuhu Rovers senior team which was much closer to where he lived. He was then selected for the New Zealand team to play 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 ...

. The test match was lost 16–13 and Hardgrave never reappeared for

afterwards. He also played against the Lions for Auckland. Hardgrave continued to play for Otahuhu in 1915, 1916 and was linked with the club at the start of the 1917 season but he did not make any appearances for them and they folded after a 3 defeats on the field and a further default loss. He then joined the Ponsonby United club and debuted for them on July 28, 1917 in a 5-0 loss to City in the final round of the championship. He had come on to replace Spence Jones who had retired injured during the first half. He played 3 matches to start the

1918 The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...

season and was listed in their team to play 2 games mid season in

1920 Events January * January 1 ** Polish–Soviet War: The Russian Red Army increases its troops along the Polish border from 4 divisions to 20. ** Kauniainen in Finland, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its ow ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardgrave, Arthur 1882 births 1953 deaths 20th-century New Zealand sportsmen Auckland rugby league team players Manukau Magpies players New Zealand national rugby league team players New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand rugby union players Otahuhu Leopards players Ponsonby Ponies players Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league players from New Plymouth Taranaki rugby league team players Taranaki rugby union players