Barry Cranston looks back with amusement on how he came to be known as ‘Funda.’
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He was coaching the great Goulburn United rugby league team at the time and was ramming home a message to his players.
“I can’t teach you to kick and pass the ball if you don’t know the fundamentals,” he had said.
“What’s this funda business,” Allan ‘Jockey’ Rudd wanted to know.
The name stuck.
Mr Cranston, a former Goulburn City councillor and past Goulburn and District Racing Club secretary manager, reflected on a long and close friendship upon learning of Jockey’s passing on Saturday.
Mr Cranston’s family moved from Boorowa to Goulburn when he was 10 and lived in Bradley Street, just around the corner from Allan and Phyllis Rudd in Auburn Street.
“I used to go around and pinch his chooks and he’d give me a kick up the bum,” he quipped.
Later, when it came to football, they had vibrant discussions.
“We, like many, went through the great days of Goulburn United and Goulburn Workers rugby league days… The tussles we had were like test matches,” Mr Cranston said.
“He would stand his ground for the United Roosters. Many a time I had hardly showed after the game and Jock had taken my side regarding an on-field struggle.”
After Mr Cranston became Racing Club secretary manager, he chose Jockey to man the horse gate.
Mr Cranston said Jockey’s people skills quietly averted numerous problems when it came to accommodating trainers.
“Not even the Racing Club committee knew that I asked Jock to come to me if he had trouble on the horse gate he was in charge of,” he said.
“I could write a book of the troubles we handled before the races started. Jockey would later say, ‘we should have let them go at each other.’”
If you were one of Jockey’s friends, you were a friend for life. Mr Cranston said this was just one of his many qualities and he felt privileged to have such a loyal mate.
He visited Jockey in Goulburn Base Hospital earlier this year.
“The last thing he said to me was, ‘Funda, you have lived your idea (dream) for Goulburn and saw it come true, a new race track!’”
He was referring to Mr Cranston’s successful push to secure a new racetrack for the city, off Taralga Road.
The man of small stature who was Goulburn’s number one fan made a big impression on many.
“They just don’t make such loyal people like that anymore,” Mr Cranston said.
- Mr Cranston was also a Goulburn Post sports journalist who wrote a rugby league column under a pseudonym so as not to undermine his weekend duties as a league referee. He chose the name ‘Funda.’