Leighton Duley will leave on a jet plane tomorrow, bidding goodbye to Hong Kong and going back home to New Zealand. An era will come to an end, for the happy hooker has been an institution in local rugby circles for the past 16 years.
'My boots are for sale,' quipped the ever-gregarious Duley, a former Hong Kong captain and front-row forward, who once quit local rugby's hierarchy because he felt not enough was being done to promote Chinese players.
'It has been a while and I have had my ups and downs. Hong Kong has been great but it is time to go,' said Duley. In June, Duley put his name forward for the position of chairman of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union. He entered a three-way race which included Martin Downey and Trevor Gregory, with the latter emerging victorious.
'I would have stayed on if I had been elected chairman. I had options open to me as far as my work career was concerned. But an opportunity cropped up back home and since I lost, I have decided to take up that challenge,' said Duley.
Never shy of a challenge as a player, Duley who works for HSBC, will take up the position of chief operating officer for the bank in Auckland.
Duley, 46, gave his all for local rugby since arriving in town back in 1990. He joined Kowloon and although he moved to DeA Tigers later, he ended his Hong Kong playing days back with Kowloon. 'I remember my first game for Kowloon was in the Valley XVs. I have retired many times since then, but this is my final retirement. I'm definitely hanging up my boots,' he said. 'I don't want to be out on a muddy paddock in New Zealand in the middle of winter. It is too cold for me. Hong Kong was great in that sense as the climate here is more convivial to old bones.'