2015-07-21
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When Auckland take on Bay of Plenty on Sunday, at stake will be a new trophy: the John Drake Boot. It's the slipper the late former Herald columnist wore in the 1987 World Cup final - and whichever captain has the thrill of lifting this high-cut footwear can consider himself privileged indeed.
It's a fitting award (no pun intended). There's something humble and everyman-ish about a used boot that once piled into rucks and anchored the All Black frontrow. We think the no-nonsense John Drake would have appreciated the simplicity of it.
But odd trophies are nothing new in the world of sport, a realm where talismanic gesture harks back to primal instincts. Here we've gathered together the best of the trophy oddities from around the sporting globe. But none comes close to the Drake Boot.
England finds a new way to lose the World Cup
Trivia question: Who was the first Englishman to lift football's World Cup?
Answer: David Corbett.
Corbett's dog Pickles found the stolen $100,000 Jules Rimet cup before the 1966 World Cup kicked off in England.
England, who was to win the trophy that year, had displayed it at a rare sports stamps exhibition in a Methodist Church Hall where it disappeared.
Presumably, the security had been distracted with a nice cuppa and a couple of well-buttered scones.
One thief was snared attempting to collect the $50,000 ransom, but the trophy remained at large... until Pickles discovered it under a hedge, wrapped in newspaper.
The stress of it all led to the fatal heart attack suffered by the head of English football soon after.
Pickles, an instant celebrity, quickly perished when choked by his lead while chasing a cat, and the ransom villain died a couple of years later.
A curse was born, but Corbett lived on to tell the tale every World Cup year.
