William James Geddes (Bill) Wells

• NZ BDM Birth: # 16285 / 1867. William James Geddes Wells. Eldest son of,
• Parents: Robert & Elizabeth Jane Wells, nee Sutherland.
• NZ BDM Death: # 7824 / 1911. William James Geddes Wella.

William John Geddes Wells was an early model of the sort of hard nosed, aggressive forward who have studded Taranaki representative packs through the generations.

Typical of the breed, Bill Wells was a man of the land, a farmer and sawmiller from the rural areas of North Taranaki just at the foot of Mt Messenger. He was a member of the club in the nearest town, Clifton in Waitara.

While still in his teens Wells made the Taranaki side in 1891 and though he was an on-again, off-again selection continued to play for the province up until 1899.

He played 18 games for Taranaki and scored two tries as a vigorous all purpose forward who for those years had a relatively robust physique at around 82kg.

The most notable of his matches for Taranaki was in the 21-6 win over the touring New South Wales side in 1894.

A measure of the strength of Taranaki rugby at the time can be gained from the fact that 10 of the players in the 1894 side were or were to become New Zealand representatives or All Blacks as they were to be known from 1905.

Wells' chance to gain national honours came through the ill luck of the Canterbury forward Sandy Kerr, who in 1896 had played against the touring Queenslanders for New Zealand and was then chosen to make the tour of Australia in 1897. But along with three others who had been chosen Kerr had to decline the tour and his replacement was Wells.

The Taranaki man performed creditably on tour in his only involvement at national level. He played in seven of the 11 matches including the first and third games against New South Wales, which were the equivalent of the tests.

http://stats.allblacks.com/asp/Profile.asp?ABID=938

Death Notice: Taranaki Herald. 11 December 1911. Page 2.