Max Carroll QSM – The Champion Coach

Ian Snook

In 2007 Max Carroll was awarded the Queens Service Medal for services to Education and Sport.

This award represented 40 years of teaching and coaching, 33 of these at his beloved New Plymouth Boys High School, by this energetic, empathetic and entertaining personality. Even today, at age 90, the memories are imparted with enthusiasm, knowledge and a human touch.

Max’s is a story of a talented individual at cricket and rugby who possessed an affinity and ability to understand and work with young men, which he turned in to a career that provided a huge amount of enjoyment and success for all those involved.

Born in Stratford and schooled at Midhirst Primary and Stratford Technical High School, Max was a whizz kid on the sports field playing in the 1st XI and selected for an inter-school game for the 1st XV in his first year at high school.

An orthodox left arm spin bowler he remembers with great fondness figures of six wickets for 13 runs and seven wickets for nine runs in the same inter-school game against Hawera High School.

In his final year at school STHS won the Taranaki Under 18 Seven Aside Tournament. He was also a prefect in Year 13. School had been a success.

It was on to Ardmore Teachers College where he played for the first teams in cricket and rugby and was picked to play in the Franklin representative cricket side. The highlight at Ardmore was meeting his future wife Bev, but there was also the occasion of playing on the No 1 wicket at Eden Park that he remembers well.

Before heading back to Midhirst for his first year of teaching Max was called up to do CMT (Compulsory Military Training), which would eventually culminate in his spending 15 years as the Commanding Officer of the Battalion at NPBHS with a rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He was a great believer in aspects of cadet training, which was part of the school curriculum in those days.

In fact ‘Colonel’ was a commonly used nickname amongst Max’s mates, particularly those who he continued to play cricket alongside in the NPOB 3rd grade in his latter years. In fact he played his last game of cricket at aged 62 alongside some other notable personalities including Ross and Doe Brown, Neil Wolfe, Barry Darney and Bob Mainland.

In 1953 Max became the first player to represent Taranaki at rugby from the recently formed Stratford Old Boys club. He started three games against Whanganui, Manawatu and Auckland, interestingly being played at the Showgrounds in Hawera, Victoria Park, Stratford, and Rugby Park in New Plymouth. He was on the bench for the Ranfurly Shield loss against Wellington. He didn’t think that starting that game would have made too much difference to the scoreline.

The following year, teaching took him to Waitara Central School and six years of playing rugby for Clifton and cricket for Waitara. Both codes had strong sides who enjoyed plenty of success and it was cricket where Max began to excel. In 1957 he was selected in the Taranaki side who he would play for during the following six seasons.

It was in 1958 when the stars aligned. JJ Stewart, the legendary rugby coach and teacher at NPBHS, organized a meeting with Max, which eventuated in his appointment to the physical education department at NPBHS, and a career at the school which would continue until retirement in 1991. Initially it was with the PE Department but for the bulk of his teaching career he taught social studies and geography.

After one year of commuting from Waitara, Max, Bev and the children Janis, Sandra and John, and Lee who was about to arrive, moved into Niger House in the position of Housemaster. Then, in the third term of 1961 Max became Housemaster of Carrington. A decade later the Carrolls would move to their new family home but there was a further five years when Max and Bev returned as Head of Hostel. In 2008 the school bestowed the honour on Max of naming a new boarding house as ‘Carroll House’. This was the ultimate recognition of a teacher, housemaster, Colonel and coach who had achieved so much at the school and had become an integral part of its success.

In 1960 Max stepped in to his ‘calling’ – coaching. For six seasons he would coach and play in the 1st cricket XI, playing the club games in the local competition. Following this he would continue as a player for another six seasons with the team being under the guidance of former New Zealand test player Ted Meuli.

Two New Zealand players emerged from his coaching stint; John Morrison and Alistar Jordan, plus first class players Henry Sampson, Warren Murdoch, Graeme Duncan, Tim Patterson and Brian Prestige, whilst there were plentiful Taranaki reps including Dennis Green, David Bennett, Maurice Betts, Trevor Smith, Francis Hill and Ross Crow.

John Smith, a name more often than any other on the NPBHS Cricket Honours Board, was in Max’s view the best schoolboy bowler he ever saw, with his copybook action, and he saw a few.

The six seasons at the helm saw the team play 18 inter-school games against Whanganui Collegiate, Wellington College and Nelson Boys for seven outright wins, eight draws and only three losses. 1961 was the most successful with three outright wins. This was a group of four leading cricket schools in the country at the time.

Max’s ‘Dream Team’ from his period at the helm is: John Morrison ©, Warren Murdoch, Brian Prestidge, Henry Sampson, Maurice Betts, Dennis Green, Dave Bennett (wk), Ross Crow, Graeme Duncan, John Smith & Alistar Jordan.

A powerful batting lineup with Duncan at nine!

His last season as coach of the 1st XI overlapped with his first season as coach of the 1st XV. To say this was a prestigious position would be an understatement. Up until then only Arthur Papps, Vic Kerr and JJ Stewart had had the honour, each for a 15 year period, to which Max would add 15 seasons of his own.

What Max went on to achieve was outstanding. In 85 inter-school games there were 58 wins and six draws, 12 defences of the Moascar Cup, [the Ranfurly Shield of Secondary Schools rugby], an unbeaten 1973 season under the captaincy of the consistently brilliant flanker Bruce Middleton, and a period beginning in 1967 which went for seven seasons where only two of the 38 games were lost.

There were also development tours to Fiji, New South Wales and Queensland, and the West Coast of Canada and USA during this period.

Three All Blacks emerged from the pack; flanker Graham Mourie, who also captained the All Blacks, the lively Mark Donaldson at halfback and Geoff Old, an athletic backrow player. Bruce Middleton, who represented NZ at Under 21, Colts and Juniors, was also selected at one stage but had to withdraw.

There were plenty of others who had the credentials but not the luck, the most obvious being Murray Kidd who was selected from the 1st XV to play against the 1971 British & Irish Lions for Taranaki and would go on to represent Taranaki 21 times, NZ Universities, Manawatu, and play over 100 games for King Country.

There were a mountain of representative players including the likes of Roger Feather, Kevin Taylor, Neil Cameron, John Forsyth, Francis Hill, Gavin White, Neil Johnston, Paul Broederlow, Jeff Bishop, Malcolm Greig, Tim Coplestone and John Cameron to name but a few.

Max’s period at the helm is best remembered for the efficiency of the forwards at the breakdown, a return to 15 man rugby, and an obvious penchant for getting the best out of his young players.

His ‘Dream Team’ is: (1-15) Malcolm Greig, Ross Kana, Mark Gray, Roger Feather, John Hepworth, Graham Mourie, Bruce Middleton ©, Geoff Old, Mark Donaldson, John Cameron, Murray Kidd, Paul Broederlow, Des Whitehead, Bill Harrison, Francis Hill.

This would have been a formidable side if it ever took the field.

As well as coaching the 1st XV Max had a period coaching the Taranaki Secondary Schools side which included an unbeaten tour to New South Wales in 1966. He would later become President of the TSSRU and ultimately a Life Member.

Squeezed in amongst all this was a year as a NZ Secondary Schools selector, Taranaki Under 20’s coach, a manager of many lower grade rep sides, a liaison officer for overseas teams and a member of the Taranaki Rugby Union for 10 years. The secondary schools job took a turn for the worse when Max didn’t select as authorised from above, and hence he was out of it as quickly as he had got in to it. He was a man with plenty of moral fibre.

Rugby didn’t finish there though. In his 40’s and 50’s he would still turn out for the Taranaki Trojans, a team made up of former rep players who amongst other things would play 1st XV’s and development sides, and provide coaching. It is rumoured that during this period Ross Brown, the legendary first-five for Taranaki and the All Blacks, anointed Max with the new nickname of ‘Scattergun’. He would have to tell you this story himself.

He also became the President of the Trojans and was awarded a Life Membership when he finally retired from active service in firing out those passes and geeing up the forward pack.

Never ones to sit still Max and Bev were enthusiastic members of the Kawaroa squash club for several years, played golf at the New Plymouth Golf Club and when they slowed down a bit they took up fly-fishing. Max held office at the golf club and was also a member of the winning NPGC 1990 Taranaki Handicap Pennant team.  Golf also took the couple on many overseas trips and to tournaments throughout NZ.

To top things off, in 2021 the Taranaki Secondary Schools Sports Association presented Max with the award for ‘Services to Secondary School Sport’. It was another recognition of the hours he put in to coaching young men and the manner in which he carried out his role.

He can now finally sit back and smile. Congratulations Max. There is much to feel proud about.

Ian Snook is a former Taranaki and Central Districts cricketer. He also played rugby for Taranaki and coached to a high level in nine different countries.