There are plenty of valuable trophies in New Zealand rugby.
But one holds centre stage in Central Otago club rugby - the White Horse Cup.
Ever since it first came about in 1926, it has dominated the landscape of club rugby in the Otago hinterland.
Now Clyde rugby fan and keen historian Ray Goodall has penned a book about the history of the White Horse Cup.
Goodall (74) had a real taste of the cup.
In the late 1960s, he played for the Clyde-Earnscleugh side which held for the cup for 18 successive defences, before losing to Gimmerburn-Patearoa in 1968.
Goodall said the book came about after he wrote a book for the 125th anniversary of the Clyde-Earnscleugh club.
He had a lot of material left over and decided to look into doing a book on the White Horse Cup.
That involved doing plenty of research, scouring old newspapers and heading to museums.
He said there were a few gaps in the reports and it was not overly easy as many of the games in the early years were not always played on Saturdays.
"I wouldn't like to think how many hours I spent on it but it was enjoyable and I never got tired of it,'' Goodall said.
The cup was donated by the White Horse Distillers Ltd, through its Dunedin agent R Wilson & Co, to be contested by clubs in the Lakes, Vincent, Tuapeka and Maniototo sub-unions in 1926.
The rules took a couple of months to be bedded down but in the first game in 1926, Alexandra beat Cromwell.
Over the years some clubs have dominated while others have disappeared.
It has been held by teams no longer in existence, such as Ida Valley and Middlemarch.
In 1949, there were eight clubs in Maniototo and nine in Vincent but the number of teams has always been volatile.
There is just one club in Maniototo now and a total of nine in the Central Otago competition.
The cup is contested when the holder has a home game throughout the season and only the team which has the cup at the end of the season can have its name inscribed on the trophy.
Goodall said going through all the reports in the newspaper it became a bit of a who's whom of Central Otago rugby over the years.
Goodall said for him the cup had remained popular as it was about the grass roots of the sport, free of "rugby politics" and the rules have never changed.
"Clyde had a challenge against Maniototo earlier this year and we took a bus over. A bus for the players and also a bus of supporters. Now, there is no way they would have had a bus of supporters if it had been just an ordinary game.
"But that is what the White Horse Cup is about. It's just a little bit special.''
