Cecil Ralph MountfordMBE (16 June 1919 – 19 July 2009), also known by the nickname of "The Blackball Bullet", was a New Zealand rugby league footballer and coach.[1][2]
Mountford was one of ten siblings, he and four of his brothers played rugby league for the South Island whilst Bill Mountford and Ken Mountford played for New Zealand. Mountford also played for West Coast, along with Bill and Ken, in inter-provincial matches.
Early years
Mountford played soccer at school, as he was considered too small to play rugby league. In 1935 at the age of 16 he joined Blackball Rugby League club, where he earned the nickname 'The Blackball Bullet' due to his speed on the field.
Playing career
Wigan
Mountford signed for Wigan Rugby League Club in 1946, he shared in one of Wigan’s finest moments in the 1949/50 campaign when, as captain – in place of usual captainJoe Egan who was on tour with seven other Wigan stars – he led his side to a sensational 20-2 Championship Final win over
Huddersfield at Maine Road.
Mountford played in the Challenge Cup final at Wembley Stadium on two occasions, the first being in 1948, when they beat the current title holders Bradford Northern 8–3 in a nail biting final.[3] The second visit, in 1951, Mountford led the team to a 10-0 victory over Barrow in a rain-soaked Wembley final. He also became the first overseas player to receive the Lance Todd Trophy.
Internationally he missed out on playing for New Zealand, but he did represent Other Nationalities in two European Championships, in a team labelled "The Rest", in 1950, watched by a crowd of 25,000 fans. He requested, and was granted, permission from Wigan to join the 1947-8 New Zealand tour of Great Britain but the Management decided that injuries were not bad enough to bring him in.[8] Instead, during the Kiwis tour Cecil played for Wigan against the Kiwis, which included his brother Ken.
In 1951 Mountford qualified as a first grade coach, being offered a 10-year contract at Warrington, despite Wigan initially refusing to release him as a player. Mountford made his first appearance for Warrington in October 1952 initially as a player coach.
After completing his tenure as a coach, he returned to New Zealand in May 1961, before heading back to England as Manager of Blackpool Borough in 1972, which was short-lived when he resigned in June 1973. Mountford returned to New Zealand in 1974, initially providing coaching courses before being signed as the manager-coach of the New Zealand national rugby league team from 1979 to 1982.
