2 days ago
A lost trophy is resurrected for a sport on the rise
For half a century, the fate of a long-forgotten piece of New Zealand volleyball history has been a mystery.
The Richard Farmer Memorial Trophy — a large, gleaming silver cup awarded for trans-Tasman women's clashes — had vanished without a trace. No one could remember when it was last presented, or whose hands last held it.
For Maureen Booth, its disappearance was personal.
The first captain of a New Zealand women's volleyball team, Booth (née Horlor) had donated the cup 50 years ago in memory of her younger brother, Richard, who was killed in a motor scooter accident in 1972, aged just 27.
In Canberra on Saturday, at the end of a five-test series between the Volleyferns and the Volleyroos, Booth will finally hand over the memorial trophy again – but in its new guise.
It means the world to Booth – now 84 and living in Geraldine. She's travelled to Australia with the help of her daughter, Maree, to watch the series – which the Volleyroos so far lead 2-1.
Maureen Booth with the new Richard Farmer Memorial Trophy. Photo: Ella Carlsen
'I'm over the moon. It's 50 years since I last played – and I didn't expect to see this happen in my lifetime,' she says.
In 1968, Booth was selected for the first New Zealand women's team to play against Australia – but as the non-travelling reserve. 'That really annoyed the heck out of me,' she says. 'It's like coming fourth at the Olympics, isn't it?
'The New Zealand Volleyball Federation had no money, and so the girls had to raise all the money to travel – so really nothing's changed. But the team couldn't get the money together, and they didn't go.
'So, I got a little bit of a hustle on, did some work, and the next year I was named captain of the New Zealand team to tour Australia.'
Booth was working at the University of Canterbury and Teachers' College at the time, and she discovered the national men's team, who were also playing in Australia, were receiving full pay from their employers while they were away.
'I had initially been refused leave when I asked for it. I had to get a letter from the volleyball federation to say there would be an international game, so they gave me leave,' she says.
'But once I discovered the men were on full pay, I jumped up and down, because I was a single mum at the time. I ended up getting half-pay from Teachers' College, which still wasn't very much, but it was something.'
Booth had been a latecomer to volleyball – 'I was coming up 30 when I started' – but was a quick learner. She'd already represented different regions of the South Island in swimming, gymnastics and netball, but volleyball was the sport that truly captured her.
She was living in Nelson and the local YMCA was spreading the word about volleyball, a sport introduced to New Zealand in the 1950s. When she moved to Christchurch, she played for the university club.
'The first time I was in the team, I was a spiker – and I'm short,' Booth says. 'The next year they changed me to setter, where I played most of my career. I didn't have a preference – as long as I was on the court.'
The NZ women's volleyball team in 1972 with captain Maureen Booth (No.5). Photo: Volleyball NZ
Booth's younger brother, Richard, was also sporty – he played rugby league and boxing and did harriers running. 'He was also a party boy,' she laughs.
Then in February 1972, Farmer was thrown off his Vespa scooter and killed instantly. His family was devastated.
'He was a pretty special brother. I was very lucky to have two brothers, and they both looked after me,' Booth says.
'It was really hard, and I told the New Zealand Volleyball Federation I wanted to pull out of the team, because I didn't think I'd have enough focus to play. But Peter Darracott, who was the national secretary, wouldn't let me – which was really nice of him.'
Booth captained New Zealand for five years, before her teammate Mary Edmondson – who's now manager of the Volleyferns – took over the role.
She then presented the trophy in memory of her brother, and the volleyball federation decreed it would be awarded for series between the New Zealand and Australian women's teams.
Australia was most likely the last team to have their hands on it before it went missing, Booth says. While the trans-Tasman rivalry continued, for decades there was no silverware to fight for.
Booth moved to Geraldine in 1986, to work as a physed teacher, and organised and played social volleyball for a decade.
Every now and again, when she'd hear New Zealand's Volleyferns were taking on Australia's Volleyroos, she would do a 'little stirring' on Facebook.
'I'd just put a little word out and say, 'Have you found the cup yet?' And the answer would come back, 'No, no, no, no',' Booth says.
But then, with the help of a neighbour, Booth connected with Volleyball NZ's high performance manager, Colleen Campbell, who already had a plan brewing.
Maureen Booth (centre) with the Volleyferns before they played for the Richard Farmer Memorial Trophy in Canberra. Photo: Volleyball NZ
Last year, the Volleyferns hosted the Volleyroos in a test series – the first time the sides had met since 2018. The Volleyferns players and management asked if a trophy could be created for trans-Tasman clashes. Campbell said first she'd check back in the records to see if there had been silverware presented in the past.
'It was very timely that Maureen wrote a comment on our Facebook page again, about the missing trophy, so I rang her after the series and said I'd come down to Geraldine to meet her,' says Campbell.
'In the meantime, I tried to find the original cup – but it went missing decades ago. I talked to the current coach of the Australian team, who had a look in their offices and trophy cabinets and couldn't find anything.
'So I said to Maureen, 'We can't locate it, which is a shame. But let's recreate it'.'
Booth was thrilled with the idea. 'Colleen gave me the opportunity to choose the new cup and I chose one very similar to the old one. I got to say what would be engraved on it, too. It's all been down to Colleen – she's been magic,' she says.
The two nations have split the cost of creating the new Richard Farmer Memorial Trophy.
Campbell then invited Booth to present it to the winning team at the end of the series in Canberra this weekend. Richard's daughter, Raewyn, and her family in Sydney, are travelling down to see the new cup presented. 'That makes it even more special,' Booth says.
She presented the Volleyferns with their jerseys before the opening match on Tuesday. And there's a player she's been keeping a close eye on – her friend's granddaughter is Anaya Cole, the 21-year-old defensive anchor in the side.
Anaya Cole receives her Volleyferns jersey from Maureen Booth. Photo: Volleyball NZ
Booth still follows volleyball avidly – she watched New Zealand play at last month's Nations Cup in Vietnam on her mobile phone, and passionately 'coaches' from a distance.
'Volleyball is the best team game you can get. It's non-contact and a team thing – you can't do it by yourself,' she says.
The game has changed significantly since she played. 'When we started, the front middle person was the setter. So you always knew where the spike was coming from and it was easy to block.
'Then we moved to hiding the setter, yeah. And then it moved to all the different sets the setter could actually put up for different players. So it's evolving tremendously.
'When I was spiking, I was right-handed and I taught myself to spike left-handed. People would say to me, 'You go up to spike, and we don't know which hand to block'. I said, 'That's all right. I don't know which hand I'm going to use until I get up there either'.
'I can see a time coming when everyone will have to spike and play with both hands. It's such a tremendous game.'
Volleyball continues to grow in New Zealand – where it's in the top three secondary school sports played behind netball and basketball – and beach volleyball is still on the rise.
The Volleyferns are fresh from a challenging campaign at the Nations Cup, where they finished 12th. Campbell says the team had many debutants, and get few opportunities to come together.
'It's great to have back-to-back competitions so they can learn what they need to compete at an international level,' she says. 'The tricky part is these athletes pay their own way for everything – it's a user-pays system, the same as a lot of sports in our category.
'There are more international campaigns coming up for them – the Asia champs next year, and the Pacific Games after that – so we want to build up a consistent core group of players who are regularly competing with each other.'
Among the core group at this series is outside hitter Tamara Otene, a Westlake Girls graduate who's played Division 1 college volleyball in the US, at the Youth Olympics in beach volleyball, and has come straight from the professional league in Puerto Rico.
The Volleyferns narrowly lost the first two matches 3-1 and 3-2, but kept the series alive with a hard-fought 3-1 victory on Wednesday night. The last two matches are Friday and Saturday.
