Jack Batty is one of the Chatham Cups most prestigious figures. Winner of the trophy on three occasions, Batty is the man who the competition’s final’s Player of the Day trophy is named after, but what was his story and how did he come to be a core part of Chatham Cup history?

Batty was born in the town of Godalming, Surrey, England on 6 of July 1901. At the age of 16, like many others his age, he joined up with the Royal Navy and served on minesweepers in the North Sea during the 1st World War. 

(Jack Batty Photographed, Batty on the right)

Jack joined the crew of the HMS Chatham when it was recommissioned for service after WW1 and lent to the New Zealand division of the Royal Navy. The HMS Chatham arrived in Aoteaora on 26 January 1921, Jack was 19 at the time.The Chatham embarked on a cruise to all possible ports in New Zealand. The ship’s company formed a football team and set out to play as many port teams as they could organise games against. It was the friendships forged and the hospitality they experienced during that tour that prompted the ships company to commission the making of a replica of the FA Cup in England, financed from the ships canteen funds and presented to the New Zealand Football Association by the captain and crew of the HMS Chatham on the 13 December 1922.

The purpose of the cup was to create a competition that all clubs across New Zealand could compete in and so the country’s oldest club knock-out football competition was born. The cup was originally played within the two islands to decide a North Island and South Island winner who would play each other in the Chatham Cup final.

Jack Batty was the goalkeeper on the ships team. He decided to stay on in New Zealand when the original duty on the Chatham came to an end. Jack was by then a member of the HMS Philomel, ostensibly at the time a training ship for the NZ Navy.

Jack stayed involved in football in New Zealand for many years. He would go on to be the first person to win the Chatham Cup on three separate occasions with three separate teams, claiming the trophy with Harbour Board in 1924, Tramways in 1929 and Tramurewa 1931. Batty himself said he was lucky to be first to three as he just happened to get to the presentation table ahead of a couple of teammates.

(Harbour Board Association Football team which won the 1924 Chatham Cup, Batty Back row, centre.)

In addition to Chatham Cup glory, Batty represented Auckland over a career spanning 10 years between 1921 – 1930 playing against overseas teams from Australia, China and Canada.

After a decorated playing career, Jack would pass his footballing talents onto his son John Batty, who would win the Chatham Cup in 1970, to complete the first family double. His grandson, former All Whites goalkeeper Jason Batty, would also go on to play in a Chatham Cup final match to make it three generations of the family playing in the final of a cup that Batty had helped to donate.

To help recognize the family’s excellence and Jack’s legacy in the game, NZFA felt it was fitting for the Chatham Cup final player of the day trophy to be named after Jack. So in 1985 the Jack Batty Trophy was first awarded and has been a part of Chatham Cup finals history ever since

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Article added: Saturday 09 September 2023