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2004
JOHN "JOCK" NEWALL - 2004
In scoring a hat trick on September 3 1952 against Fiji at Albert Park, Suva, Jock Newall established a record as the leading goal scorer in all matches for New Zealand and has kept that record for over fifty years.
Jock went on to score twelve further goals on tour, extending the record to 28 goals - a figure unsurpassed to this day although Vaughan Coveny reached the same mark during the Oceania Football Championship series in Adelaide this year. Coveny, like Newall and the previous holder, George Campbell, played club football in Wellington. (Campbell's record was fifteen, set back in 1924, in the days when there could be years between appearances).
While Coveny took the field in 67 games before he reached the record figure, Newall required just seventeen games. Newall's playing career in this country was similarly short, embracing just four seasons, but during those years he was hailed as a class inside forward with excellent footwork and passing skills.
Jock Newall first came to local
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attention in 1950, after his arrival from Scotland where he had been a professional with Ayr United prior to World War II. Like other fine footballers of the time, Jock's dreams of a professional career ended effectively with the outbreak of war. Jock returned home with a disability pension and was advised by the club doctor to give the game away.
However, emigration to New Zealand offered new opportunity and he was soon coerced into playing for Petone in the local Wellington competition. Selection for Wellington followed and in 1951 Jock turned out for New Zealand against a touring team representing the Australian State of Victoria. Later that year he toured as vice-captain of the New Zealand team to Fiji and New Caledonia.
The following year Jock made another trip to the Islands, this time as captain of New Zealand. Ten games in Fiji and Tahiti on sun-baked grounds and in high temperatures was no easy task for a party of just fourteen players, but an unbeaten record was maintained
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throughout the tour, a rare achievement for a touring New Zealand team. The team showed appreciation for their captain by chairing him off the field after the second of two drawn "tests' against Tahiti.
Jock stood 1.75 metres and weighed 67 kilograms when playing for New Zealand. He was born in Ayr, Scotland on 21 July 1917 as John White Newall but was known in soccer circles and by his family as "Jock".
Remarkably his goalscoring feats for New Zealand were achieved after his company's doctor had initially refused him a certificate of fitness to travel with the team to the islands. The doctor relented only after cajoling and on the understanding that his patient would retire from the game. Jock continued to play for another season but developed an asthmatic allergy and was advised to return to Scotland. There he remained in good health and played plenty of golf. He died January 21 this year in the Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary, aged 86.
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