The Rugby Blanket – Acknowledgements.

I’ve come up with a novel idea. Not an idea for a novel but an original way of thanking and/or acknowledging everyone involved or mentioned in a book. In the world of paper publishing a writer would be asked to keep their acknowledgements brief (a page or less). In e-publishing it makes sense to keep acknowledgements to a similar length so those who have bought the book can get on with the business of reading it. However there is nothing to stop the writer of an eBook leaving a link for those readers who have internet capable devices. That link can then lead them to a longer list of acknowledgements where everyone gets a mention. And I mean everyone.

I have decided to do just that with this post. It will be one that I update over time until it becomes less a page of acknowledgements and more a glossary of all the characters who appeared in ‘The Rugby Blanket’ whether that be a simple passing reference or a critical figure in the book. I will start with some I particularly want to thank (those who would disown me if I didn’t) and then I will compile a chronological list of everyone who appeared from the ‘Origin’ to the ‘Final Whistle’. Should be fun and it’s a way of leaving nobody out. So here goes:

Janet Muir: My Wife. While she talks to me about the difficulties of accountancy (fiscal prudence, estimates, audit committees and general ledgers), I in turn get to bore her to death about paragraph indentation, drop caps, punctuation, slang, grammar and the narrative. It’s a mutually beneficial sedative (I mean arrangement). She is my best mate.

Mum: Obviously I want to thank mum for not letting me play rugby as I wouldn’t have had any time to watch, read or write about the game. Also thanks for some feedback on those years that are a little fuzzy for me such as 1981. And thank you for choosing to move to Waiheke in 1985 – One of the best decisions you ever made, I think you’ll agree. Your granddaughters are very grateful I can tell you.

Dad: Thanks for your help with recollections of 1981. Also the emails on your political history were a great help and of course those anecdotes about the uncles and their antics. I’m glad you finally got to read that file that the C.I.A kept on you after all these years and I think I can imagine what the last update said: “The subject ‘activist x’ has been spending more and more time in the garden on Sunday’s. This is rather suspicious as he should be in church. Also ‘activist x’ spends a lot of time listening to a strange sport called ‘cricket’ on his wireless radio – It is clearly a communist game.”

Nana: A.k.a. Nora Toye. Were she alive today she would be a hundred years old. She bought the blanket and because of this the All Blacks have the long lost trophy. She was a generous woman and could easily given it to St Vincent de Paul. Had she given the blanket away…well it doesn’t bear thinking about.

The All Blacks: There’s a lot of them mentioned in this book. Funny that. I cant put my finger on it but something happens to mere mortals when they put on the black jersey. They become a part of history after that. Because it is rugby that ‘history’ is engraved into the minds of most Kiwi’s. Will they carry on this consistent winning record into the foreseeable future? Statistics say they probably wont but stats can only take you so far. I wouldn’t bet against them. Here is a long list of legends (as they appear in the book):

Gary Knight, Brian Lochore, Colin Meads, Kel Tremain, Waka Nathan, Ken Gray, Bernie Fraser, Murray Mexted, Andy Haden, John Kirwan, Jock Hobbs, Robbie Deans, Wayne Smith, Gary Whetton, Grant Fox, David Kirk, Craig Green, Frank Bunce, Graeme Bachop, Michael Jones, John Gallagher, Bernie McCahill, Mark Brooke-Cowden, Wayne Shelford, Andy Dalton, Sean Fitzpatrick, Tiger Lynch, Jeff Wilson, Tom Lynch, Pat Lam, Stephen Bachop, Va’aiga Tuigamala, Andy Earl, John Timu, Terry Wright, Jon Preston, Craig Innes, Joe Stanley, Walter Little, Kieran Crowley, John Schuster, Matthew Ridge, Frano Botica, Jonah Lomu, Andrew Mehrtens, Simon Culhane, Josh Kronfeld, Glen Osborne, Laurie Mains, Marc Ellis, Eric Rush, Alama Ieremia, Richard Loe, Paul Henderson, Kevin Schuler, Ant Strachan, Robin Brooke, Zinzan Brooke, Olo Brown, Christian Cullen, Justin Marshall, Tana Umaga, Norm Maxwell, Byron Kelleher, Taine Randell, Craig Dowd, Tony Brown,

To be continued…

You may also like...

3 Responses

  1. Janet says:

    Ah thanks honey, but you certainly don’t bore me. I’m enjoying being part of your adventures in publishing xx

  2. I used to be suggested this blog by my cousin. I’m now not certain whether or not this publish is written by way of him as no one else understand such precise approximately my trouble. You are amazing! Thanks!

  3. Anonymous says:

    Hi you have a great weblog over here! Thanks for sharing this interesting stuff for us! If you keep up the great work I’ll visit your blog again. Thanks!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *