Long-time Timaru sports broadcaster Mike Richards dies

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Mike Richards in 2017. He worked as a part-time sports broadcaster in Timaru for 54 years.

A part-time radio broadcaster who became synonymous with South Canterbury sport, particularly rugby, Mike Richards, has died.

When NewstalkZB axed Richards' local Saturday morning show, a one-hour round-up of South Canterbury sport in 2020, it ended his 54 years broadcasting in Timaru.

“It’s gone now,” Richards, a son of former Timaru mayor William “Tex” Richards, said at the time.

“But it will leave a bloody big gap.”

Educated at the former Marist Brothers’ School and St Patrick’s High School, Richards’ first job was working in a Timaru menswear store owned by an uncle, Morrie Goddard, an ex-All Black centre three-quarter. Another uncle, Jack Goddard, was also an All Black fullback.

Probably as a result of this connection, rugby became Richards’ greatest sporting interest, although he was an accomplished squash player also, representing South Canterbury.

At the beginning of his broadcasting career in 1967, on Saturday afternoons, Richards collected and read sports results from around the region on 3XC, later Radio Caroline.

When regular rugby broadcaster Cyril Britten left Timaru, Richards took on the job and held it for 30 years, broadcasting from a small concentre block building on the northern side of Fraser Park where a new grandstand and amenity was now being built.

These were the days when senior rugby matches were broadcast live from Fraser Park and international teams played in Timaru. Richards broadcast a South Canterbury-Ireland match, and Hanan Shield XV matches against other international sides, as well as two Ranfurly Shield matches in the space of a week.

John Bisset/Stuff

Rugby was Richards’ greatest sporting interest, though he was also an accomplished squash player.

In the first of them, South Canterbury challenged Canterbury at Fraser Park mid-week and Canterbury defended against Wairarapa Bush three days later at Lancaster Park in Christchurch. When South Canterbury held the shield in 1974, the “log-o-wood” was displayed in Goddard’s store where Richards worked.

Richards regretted the end to the days when rugby clubs associated with pubs around Timaru, for example, Celtic and Star favouring the Old Bank, and Old Boys the Crown Hotel.

At the conclusion of matches on a Saturday afternoon, players and supporters would gather in the pubs to socialise and replay the day’s action.

Timaru Sail and Anchor Bar & Cafe owner Barney Cahill said Richards had been a regular at his bars, first in the Royal Arcade and latterly in Sophia St.

John Bisset/Stuff

Mike Richards was a legend of South Canterbury sport.

“He used to be a legend; he was one of life’s characters and a real personality. He had his own seat in the corner until he got sick in the past 18 months.

“There are a lot of tales about him; he was well known by the older brigade.”

Former broadcaster Larry Williams, who started his career at Radio Caroline, commented on an online tribute page to Richards: “Mike was one of life’s good buggers.”

A former international rugby referee, Colin Hawke, wrote: “Friend to many and a local legend.”

Never a person to take himself too seriously, Richards often related one on-air blue. At the end of one intense Zingari-Celtic match, the excitement must have got to him as he told listeners around South Canterbury:

“The referee looks at his whistle and blows his watch; it’s all over!”

Cahill said after Richards’ funeral Mass at Sacred Heart Basilica, and burial in Timaru Cemetery on Monday, friends and family would gather at the Sail & Anchor to reminisce.