{"id":646590,"date":"2026-05-03T08:38:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T08:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/646590\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T08:38:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T08:38:23","slug":"chch-80-year-old-honoured-after-serving-71-years-at-same-football-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/646590\/","title":{"rendered":"Chch 80-year-old honoured after serving 71 years at same football club"},"content":{"rendered":"

A stalwart of Christchurch’s Western Football club kicked off his 80th birthday celebrations early at his club of more than seven decades this weekend.<\/p>\n

Western Football Club was founded in 1913, and Tony \u2018Woodsie\u2019 Woods has been part of the club for a whopping 71 of the club\u2019s 113 years after signing up at nine years of age.<\/p>\n

\"Tony<\/p>\n

Tony ‘Woodsie’ Woods on the ball. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Footballers of all generations banded together to celebrate his 80th this weekend, including a pre-over-50s-match rendition of Happy Birthday sung on the pitch and a “mug of the day” award presented to him by one of the club\u2019s younger players. <\/p>\n

Teammate Stu Minton who joked that he was one of the founding members – and clearly meant a lot to the community built around him. <\/p>\n

Tony ‘Woodsie’ Woods has\u00a0played and volunteered with\u00a0the\u00a0same\u00a0football\u00a0club for a whopping 71 years. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

“If we need a volunteer to do something, his hand goes up first every time,” said club president Ray Parks.<\/p>\n

“He’s helped coach senior teams. He’s been the manager of the men’s first team. He’s currently our club patron. He’s been our grounds convener.”<\/p>\n

\"Tony<\/p>\n

Tony Woods’ influence spans many generations. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

The list went on. He ran a summer football competition, was club captain for years, served on the committee for decades, and was at the heart of many working bees.<\/p>\n

Woods told 1News his motivations were simple: “If you enjoy doing something, you just do it, don’t you?” <\/p>\n

\u201cI can’t remember not doing things, helping out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He started playing at Mairehau Primary \u2013 right beside the rugby pitch the school had ruled off-limits to him and his footballing mates.<\/p>\n

\"Woods<\/p>\n

Woods and his mates He started playing football at Mairehau Primary School. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

“Football wasn\u2019t a big thing in those days,” he said. <\/p>\n

One of those mates’ fathers asked the school if it could put a team together to play other schools, without any success.<\/p>\n

“So, he decided that he\u2019d get a hold of Western Football Club and he started a team down there.”<\/p>\n

Exercise and meeting people were two “incredibly important” parts of his life. Football had always allowed him to tick those boxes.<\/p>\n

\"Woods<\/p>\n

Woods is presented with the ‘mug of the day’ award. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Woods said in those 71 years he had met “a helluva lot of people”. <\/p>\n

“I went overseas one time; I was in Hawaii with my partner. And she said, ‘if you know anybody, that\u2019s it, I\u2019m coming home and I’m leaving you here’.” <\/p>\n

“She went and ordered a beer at the bar, and I had to go get something else and I walked through the bar and some guy yelled out, ‘Woodsie!’<\/p>\n

“She said, ‘That\u2019s it I\u2019m off home!'” <\/p>\n

\"Woods<\/p>\n

Woods has been a part of the club for 71 years. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Asked about how he planned to keep going, Woods didn\u2019t suggest he\u2019d be hanging the boots up any time soon.<\/p>\n

“As long as I can\u2026 I’m a big part of the club and I always will be.”<\/p>\n

He reckoned he was just one of many dedicated veterans sprinkled across the country’s footballing landscape.<\/p>\n

“Every club has a Woodsie.”<\/p>\n

“If you can keep on doing things and kicking the ball around and enjoying life and enjoying yourself with other people, do it!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A stalwart of Christchurch’s Western Football club kicked off his 80th birthday celebrations early at his club of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,41605,596,85],"class_list":["post-646590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-christchurch-canterbury","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}