Skill and Crossbones the 125 year history of the Pirates Football Club Dunedin by Winston Cooper, Mark Fowler.

Publisher: Full-Back Pubs, 2007.
SCARCE.

Very good softback, a little corner creasing, minor marks, no inscriptions.
310 pages, illustrated.

It is fitting Winston Cooper should write the 125-year history of the Pirates Rugby Football Club because he has always been a loyal club man.
This loyalty was demonstrated in 1957 when he was a pupil at Otago Boys High School and was seen by rector Ted Aim playing rugby for Pirates.

Cooper played for Pirates junior teams over the next four years and had reached second grade (the second club team at that time) when he joined the army in 1960.

"I worked full-time on the book when I retired" Cooper said.

Mark Fowler assisted him with the Pirates project.

Cooper has read most of the sports club histories in New Zealand and believes the Pirates history is one of the the most comprehensive.

There is a detailed chapter on the glory years from 1946 to 1952, when Pirates won three premier banners and produced All Blacks Ray Dalton, Kevin Skinner and Ray Bell.

Another chapter features club guru Charlie Saxton, who played for the All Blacks, captained the Kiwi team after World War 2, coached Otago with Vic Cavanagh and was president and a life member of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union.

ALL PHOTOS ARE OF THE ACTUAL BOOK.

All books are sent with free courier postage within New Zealand.

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