The History of Hātea Harriers in Whangārei

– With thanks to Colin Adams

A Running Club Steeped In History

In 1932, the Whangarei Amateur Athletic & Cycling Club, (WAA&CC) was established with the Whangarei High School Head Master, Mr. WR Ryder as President and Mr. AL Tressider as Club Captain, This was the first Northland amateur athletic club and they held weekly summer twilight track and field meetings on the school grounds.

Professional track and field events were held in conjunction with other community and family entertainment at Agricultural & Pastoral Shows, Gymkanas etc. Among the more popular Northland venues were Maungatapere, Maungakaramea, Waipu, Kaihu, Waimate North, Broadwood, Kohukohu, Opononi, Kaikohe and Dargaville, where tracks were little more than mown paddocks and seldom (if ever) surveyed.

Post WW2 saw worldwide interest in amateur athletics, but harsh international rules pertaining to amateurism spelt the end of professional athletics. Here in Northland, it was still somewhat isolated so few questioned the “more than occasional” very competitive individual athletes appearing at these meetings where, including side bets, substantial sums of cash could be (and were) made.

In Northland, as more amateur athletics clubs were established and affiliated with the New Zealand Amateur Athletics Association, (NZAAA), interest in professional events decreased until by the early 1950s only the Waipu New Years Highland Games offered cash prizes for the athletic competitions associated with the event.

In 1951 a group of friends being members of the Baptist Church including Alan & Ralf Collinson, Keith Adams and Ian Basset began holding social, non competitive pack runs. They generally meet at the Baptist Church Hall in Keyte St and mostly run over the open farmland that was later developed as the suburb of Otangarei. This was not a recognized club and was only later, for convenience, referred to as the Baptist Harrier Club. In 1952, distance runners from other centers along with local athletes including Jack Heatley, Alf Moselen, Bill Briggs, Len Waugh, Colin Doreen and Tom Broad joined them.

When the Whangarei Amateur Athletic & Cycling Club, (WAA&CC) refused to introduce a Harrier section a meeting was held at the home of Jack Heatley in Hatea Drive to establish the Whangarei Harrier Club (WHC) and competitive Harrier Cross Country and Road Running was introduced to Northland.

Whangarei Harrier Club (WHC) became a strong club whose members provided most of Northland’s leading distance runners and success for the new club came early. In its first year (1953) Jack Heatley, Colin Doreen, Bill Briggs, Alf Moselen and Keith Hartley won the Auckland B Cross Country Teams event and Tom Broad finished prominently in the Junior Championship becoming the first of many WHC Junior Harriers to represent Auckland. He also won the Junior one mile track title in 1954.

When Whangarei Harrier Club athletes who had competed regularly during the 1953 winter dominated the next summer athletic track and field meetings the benefits of clubs having a harrier section became immediately obvious. In 1954, Dargaville AA&CC (then Northland’s strongest athletics club) led by Harry Hoddinot, Len Field, Jim Price, Colin Patterson, Tom, Henry and Ian McErnerny, added a harrier section with the Kaikohe, Moerewa and Kaitaia clubs soon following.

The NZAAA in 1952 consented to the formation of the Northland Amateur Athletic Council (NAAC) where inter-club meetings of mutual benefit could be pursued. Although rejecting a request to establish a separate Center, they acknowledged Northland’s different requirements to Auckland City athletes. To compete in New Zealand Championship events Northland athletes still had to gain Auckland Center selection. 

In Harrier matters the Whangarei Harrier Club (WHC), on behalf of the NAAC dealt directly with the Auckland Centre and held Northland Championships, rep trials, selected Northland representative teams and introduced annual contests against Waikato and Auckland “B”.

RA (Dick) Roycroft was elected the first WHC President, a position he held until leaving Whangarei in 1963. He was given life membership in 1958. Under his guidance the Club concentrated on developing, encouraging and supporting young athletes. It became a strong family oriented club and had by 1955 introduced Ladies and Under 17 Sub Junior sections. This was followed by a Midgets and Harrierets section, for under 13 years olds, a move later adopted by Auckland and then New Zealand.

Within 3 years the WHC had become the Auckland Center’s strongest Junior Grade Club with club seniors competitive with all except the Owairaka and Lynndale Clubs (with many New Zealand representatives) two of the largest and strongest clubs in NZ.

In 1954 the WHC staged the first Waipu to Whangarei road relay with club members Colin Roycroft, Neil Fuge, Charles Hamilton, Colin Adams and Tom Broad winning the inaugural event. This 5 man team relay was an immediate success attracting large fields from Auckland clubs with many New Zealand athletes participating. These included M Halberg, W Baillie, J Julian, J Robinson, I Keates, H Roger, L King, E Haskell, RA Lydiard, R Pucket and M Miller. The Waipu to Whangarei relay was to continue for 50 years until Transit NZ requirements forced its eventual demise.

Although strongly opposed by WHC, after years of persistence Northland was finally granted Center status in 1959. Being a separate Center allowed selected Northland athletes to enter NZ Championship events with no need to qualify through the Auckland Center as previously.

Whangarei Harrier Club continued to administer, co-ordinate and organise Harriers in Northland. During 1960, trials were held to select Northland’s first team to compete in NZ Cross Country Championship, to be held in Wellington. The team consisted of Dick Roycroft as manager, (and in finishing order) Colin Adams, (Captain) Colin Roycroft, (both WHC), Arnold Lawson (Kaikohe), Frank Riceman (WHC), Victor Smith (Kaikohe) and juniors Mark Johnson (Kaikohe) and Dave Sirl (WHC). Sirl, after moving to Auckland became an outstanding athlete and was later inducted into the NZ Hall of Fame. 

In another first, the WHC represented by Stan Roberts and Colin Adams met with the North Auckland Rugby Union (NARU) and negotiated the use of their Rugby Park in grounds in Alexander St for the 1961/62 season. In return for the use of facilities, flood lights and grounds the club offered to pay for the power and thus become the first club in Northland to hold floodlit meetings. The NARU was so satisfied with the results that it waived all power charges and extended the then unwritten agreement. This arrangement was to continue until the NARU moved to Okara Park in Port Rd.

The new Northland Center, at the insistence of the WAA&CC, claiming confusion as a reason, demanded that the WHC change its name and uniform. So in 1961 this brought into existence the Hatea Athletic & Harrier Club (Hatea Harriers) with its distinctive Black and Gold uniform. Being only a name change, all WHC assets also transferred to Hatea. The name Hatea was chosen as a reference to Hatea Drive where the original decision to establish the Whangarei Harrier Club had been made.

Over the years the Hatea club has nurtured many runners who have progressed to prominence at both national and international level.

Colin Adams finished 4th in the 1955 New Zealand Cross Country Champs held on the Rosewill course in Timaru and Frank Riceman ran with distinction as a veteran in many Auckland races. Frank also won the Northland marathon on 3 occasions after placing second in the three previous marathons.

In 1956 the club juniors took out third place in the Auckland Cross Country championships teams race with Ray Noone 2nd, Colin Adams 3rd, Charles Broad 9th and Neil Fuge 13th. The same year saw Hatea take second place in the 5 and 10-man teams race, also in Auckland.

Results for the Waipu to Whangarei relay in 1958 show Lynndale first, Owairaka second and Hatea third. In this team were Colin Roycroft, Ron Roycroft, Frank Riceman, Colin Adams and Colin Broad.

Trail runner Zelah Moreall won the 2003 69 km Kepler Challenge Mountain Run in the record time of 5.23.34 which still stands today.

Former junior Club runner Mark Turner went on to became 2 times New Zealand 800 m champion.

Aussie born Robbie Watts holds the fastest marathon time for a Northland registered runner with his 2hr, 23min 27sec at New Plymouth.

Evergreen masters runner Jim Kettlewell secured 1st place and a new course record time for his age group at the EXTERRA World Trail running Champs in Hawaii in 2011.

Bella Earl has been a clear winner of her age group in the NZ Cross Country champs since 2017.

The Hatea club continues to produce quality performers in age group competition at both national and international level and looks forward to more success in coming years.

When parkrun became established in New Zealand Hatea Harriers saw the opportunity to start an event here in Whangarei. This happened in 2016 and Whangarei parkrun is what the club now does every Saturday. Many of the new runners joining Hatea Harriers got their start in running at Whangarei parkrun and this continues to be a great way for people to discover the benefits running continues to provide.