Kenneth Brooking "Paddy" George (28 May 1883 – 10 August 1950) was a New Zealand

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

and professional

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 played in the 1900s and 1910s. He played club level rugby union (RU) for City, and representative rugby league (RL) for

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 ...

(non- Test matches), and

Wellington Wellington 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 third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, and at club level for Newtown, as a .

Playing career

George played rugby in the Taranaki area for the Star club. Despite being in his debut season at the senior level he was selected for 2 trial matches (North team, and Probables team) before being chosen for the Taranaki side. He played 3 matches for them against Canterbury, Wellington, and Auckland before moving to Auckland to start the 1903 season. He played

in the

Auckland Rugby Union The Auckland Rugby Union is a New Zealand provincial rugby union. The union was established in 1883 and was originally responsible for the administration of the sport in most of the former Auckland Province, although its boundaries have since s ...

competition for the City club. City won the competition. In 1904, along with Andrew J. "Paddy" Long, he was found guilty of match-fixing and suspended for 10 years.Pass it on
''Wellington Rugby League'', p.5 Long played for the Newton club. The two players had been approached by a bookie and accepted money to throw the result of the match between the two teams. The match was drawn 0-0 and Newton went on to win the championship a week later. George subsequently moved to

and in 1908 he was part of the very first

match on New Zealand soil, at the end of the 1907-08 All Golds tour. George then represented

and was part of the 1909 New Zealand tour of Australia. In 1912 he was part of the committee that founded the Newtown rugby league club, which took part in the inaugural

Wellington Rugby League Wellington Rugby League is the local sporting body responsible for the administration of Rugby league in the Wellington Region, Greater Wellington region. It is responsible for the local competition of the same name, as well as its representative ...

competition. During the 1913 tour of New Zealand by

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 ...

, George played against the touring party twice - for Wellington and New Zealand. Paddy George played in

's 33-18 victory over

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 ...

during the 1913 New Zealand rugby league season Inter-district competition on Saturday 27 September 1913, this would be Wellington's last victory against Auckland until 1988.''Lion Red 1988 Rugby League Annual'',

New Zealand Rugby Football League The New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in New Zealand. SPARC, 2009: 13 The NZRL was founded on 25 April 1910 in preparation for a tour of Great Britain that same year.Coffey and Wood '' ...

, 1988. p.p.151-159

Death

George died in 1950 and was buried at Te Henui Cemetery 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 ...

Note

George's nickname of "Paddy" does not appear to be derived from his

given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a f ...

s of Kenneth Brooking, although rugbyleagueproject.org, nzrl.co.nz, and nzleague.co.nz, erroneously state his given name as

Patrick Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint * Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

, this could be a case of reverse-annotation from the nickname Paddy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:George, Paddy 1883 births 1950 deaths 20th-century New Zealand sportsmen Burials at Te Henui Cemetery New Zealand national rugby league team players New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand rugby union players Place of birth missing Place of death missing Rugby league five-eighths Rugby league players from Taranaki Wellington rugby league team players