Sport
3 October, 2024
Biddy takes on the blokes in footy challenge
Biddy Kirkwood, aged 96, reckons she was the first woman in West Wyalong to get married on a Wednesday and it was all because her new husband Bill was off to coach the Harden Rugby League team over the weekend.
“I didn’t see him for nearly a week after we were married,” says Mrs Kirkwood who was 21 years old when the knot was tied back in June 1949.
“I got married on the Wednesday and he had to go coaching Thursday night and left Friday in the bus to go to Tumut. I didn’t go, I stayed at a hotel I was staying at. They played the game and got beat two-nil. They didn’t come home that night, they stayed there and came home the next day.”
That early – some might say quite unromantic - immersion in league goes a long way to explain how this very season the knowledgeable local faced off against two young blokes in the S&C Club footy tipping competition, in which the trio eventually came joint first.
For most of the competition, Mrs Kirkwood was just out in front, at one stage by three points.
Footy-loving mates Jarrad Kelly – he’s got some league pedigree too thanks to grandad John Kelly – and Joshua Judd say they got “pretty stressed out” as the competition reached its zenith.
The two young fellas were chasing Biddy down and they picked seven out of eight in the last round.
But Biddy wasn’t about to give up and it came down to the last game before the semis. Had Joshua and Jarrad picked Newcastle to beat the Dolphins they would have beaten the wily Mrs Kirkwood, but it was not to be.
“It all comes from being married to a football coach,” she told the Advocate. “And then there’s my sons, and the brother-in-law – they all played football so I’ve picked up some tips along the way.”
Meanwhile, the blokes were, as Joshua put it, “getting stressed out. We were so close to the lead and on the last game we were really stressing over it.
“At the end of the season we watched every minute of every game for the last six weeks,” he added.
Biddy admits she was also feeling the stress more than a bit but she held in there.
“It’s partly built-up knowledge,” she says, and admits, “I’ve done it before and yes I will be playing next year, but it is stressful.”
The boys will try again too.
“It runs deep in this town, for sure,” says Biddy of rugby league whose end of season NRL Grand Final match between the Storm and Penrith Panthers is on this weekend. And we know three locals who will be glued to the TV, trying hard to work out who’s going to be the winner.
And Mrs Kirkwood? She’s got the book ready for next season.
Read More: West Wyalong
