Selwyn Times: November 28, 2018
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SELWYN TIMES Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />
Wednesday <strong>November</strong> <strong>28</strong> <strong>2018</strong> 31<br />
Ireland to a life of horses and gardens<br />
You’ve recently returned to<br />
football for a couple of masters<br />
tournaments. Tell me about the<br />
third place finish in the Gold<br />
Coast.<br />
It was an amazing experience.<br />
Our first game we played as a<br />
team was our first game there<br />
and we won 3-0 . . . the biggest<br />
struggle was with the heat, it was<br />
80 per cent humidity. I stuck my<br />
shirt in a bucket of ice before<br />
every game and it was dry within<br />
minutes of chucking it on. They<br />
had to take drink breaks every 15<br />
minutes.<br />
You also represented Ireland<br />
in equestrian?<br />
Dad bought me a little pony I<br />
was just horse mad. I ended up<br />
really just coming up through<br />
the ranks and I represented<br />
Ireland when I was 15. I started<br />
when I was 11 and did it up until<br />
I moved to New Zealand, so for<br />
about 17 years.<br />
Did you have much success?<br />
Yes, I show-jumped all over<br />
the place and represented Ireland<br />
at Hickstead in England. I was<br />
third overall in Europe which<br />
was huge. There are 80 to 100<br />
competitors over the space of a<br />
week. I won Northern Ireland<br />
championships in the late 1970s<br />
and I was third in Ireland so that<br />
put me in the top two or three in<br />
the country.<br />
Tell me about your move to<br />
New Zealand.<br />
They were starting an<br />
equestrian centre up in Waikato<br />
and I got the job. I started out<br />
with four lame horses and no<br />
clients. Now it’s one of the biggest<br />
in New Zealand. I ran that for<br />
five-and-a-half years, we were<br />
one of the first places in the<br />
North Island to start therapeutic<br />
riding . . . then I got terribly ill,<br />
moved to Christchurch and I’ve<br />
been here ever since.<br />
What happened with you<br />
being terribly ill?<br />
I’d been back to Ireland in<br />
1992 and in 1993 I wasn’t feeling<br />
very well. I’d had several pains<br />
in my lower back and I just felt<br />
really bad. Then I passed out one<br />
day and woke up in intensive<br />
NATIONAL HONOURS: Wilson played 26 games for Northern<br />
Ireland.<br />
care five weeks later in Waikato<br />
hospital and they said I’d picked<br />
up some sort of a bug which had<br />
been dormant until my immune<br />
system was low and then it<br />
attacked the system . . . to this<br />
day they don’t know what it was,<br />
but at the time they said to my<br />
parents that I had about three<br />
hours to live.<br />
So you didn’t remember a<br />
thing for five weeks?<br />
I don’t remember a thing.<br />
I just remember being on the<br />
phone to my mum. I know it was<br />
around St Patrick’s Day because<br />
her birthday is on the 18th of<br />
March and I was about to head<br />
FLYING: Wilson clears a barrier while competing in a show<br />
jumping competition in Dublin in the late 1970s.<br />
out to work because I lived on the<br />
property at the equestrian centre<br />
and then I just remember waking<br />
up five weeks later . . . they said<br />
to me if I wanted to play football<br />
again it was going to take me a<br />
couple of years to get my strength<br />
and coordination back, but I<br />
played half a game of premier<br />
football that September.<br />
So after that you moved to<br />
Christchurch?<br />
Mum and Dad were in<br />
Christchurch and I needed<br />
looking after so they said<br />
look you’ve got to come to<br />
Christchurch . . . when I got<br />
here I ended up playing for<br />
Canterbury and captained<br />
the team at the South Island<br />
championships which we won.<br />
I played a couple of seasons<br />
with the team but I’d gone into<br />
my own business at that stage.<br />
That basically when I stopped<br />
playing.<br />
What was the business you<br />
had?<br />
Initially when I came down<br />
I ran the equestrian centre at<br />
Wigram. I did that for a while<br />
and then I had some land on<br />
Old Tai Tapu Rd so I decided<br />
to go into agistment which is<br />
looking after race horses when<br />
they’re not racing. I did it mainly<br />
for a lot of the local trainers<br />
like Colin De Filippi, Murray<br />
Edmonds, Mike De Filippi and<br />
Brent Weaver. I had all of their<br />
horses when they were spelling<br />
from racing and that’s a fulltime<br />
job. I did that for 12 years<br />
actually.<br />
Now you’re doing gardening?<br />
Yes, I decided I had enough of<br />
the land and got back into my<br />
gardening . . . so I bought a little<br />
house in Lincoln and I’ve been<br />
back at my gardening for seven<br />
years. I was going to get enough<br />
to keep me busy but it’s ended up<br />
I have so much work I need an<br />
extra day in the week.<br />
I take it you celebrated<br />
Ireland’s win over the All Blacks<br />
last weekend?<br />
Absolutely. I turned up work<br />
last Monday in my Ireland scarf<br />
and shirt. My first client on a<br />
Monday is an avid All Blacks<br />
fan and he said to me he knew I<br />
would do that.<br />
Last question, do you drink<br />
Guinness?<br />
Oh yes, I think we drank the<br />
Landsdown Road dry – which<br />
was the local Irish pub on the<br />
Gold Coast – when we were over<br />
there . . . we liked to have a drink<br />
on our day off, it was the only<br />
right thing to do really.<br />
Holden trade club saloon<br />
speedweek<br />
presented by valvoline<br />
plus Mag & turbo super cup<br />
fri 30 tH noveMber & sat 1 st deceMber<br />
7pM start<br />
doubledays road kaiapoi infoline 03 364 8833 www.woodfordglen.co.nz<br />
adults $20, seniors $10, cHildren $5, under 5 yrs Free faMily pass $40 (2 adults & up to 4 children 15yrs & under)
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