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

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

and professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

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 ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

(non-

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

es) ( Heritage № 32), and

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) 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 second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, 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 ...

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 Greater Wellington region. It is responsible for the local competition of the same name, as well as its representative team, the Wellingto ...

competition. During the 1913 tour of New Zealand by

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

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

's 33-18 victory over

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

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 ''T ...

, 1988. p.p.151-159

Death

George died in 1950 and was buried at

Te Henui Cemetery Te Henui Cemetery, also known as New Plymouth Cemetery, is the oldest public cemetery in New Plymouth, New Zealand. It was first used in 1861. The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "the great mistake" for . ...

New Plymouth New Plymouth ( mi, Ngāmotu) 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, Devon from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. ...

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 fa ...

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 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 Wellington rugby league team players