My Account
It’s been a long road, with many challenges which would have thwarted many a sportsman, but Anthony Brogden, 50, of Warkworth has become the first paraplegic sportsman in the world to represent his country in an open event at the World DTL (clay bird shooting) Championships. On the eve of his departure for the August 15 to 23 competition in Ireland, Anthony talks to Mahurangi Matters about his journey from fit and healthy rugby league player to wheelchair bound world class shooter.
After I hit a power pole and came off my motorbike at the age of 20 in my home town of Hawera, in Taranaki, I was given 11 hours to live. I’d broken my back, stove in my rib cage, smashed my shoulders and partially broken my neck, The only bits that didn’t have broken bones were my arms and legs. They resuscitated me a couple of times and I came through. But the spinal fracture at T5 resulted in paralysis from my chest down.
My saving grace is that I’m stubborn. The other factor in my survival was that I was fit. I’d lived my whole life in Hawera and loved it there, especially the open spaces close to home. If I wasn’t playing rugby league – I played for Hawera in premier level – I was out fishing or hunting. My father had been a duck shooter all his life and I followed his example. He didn’t watch my league games – mum did – but when it came to shooting he was right there.
The early rehabilitation period is a blur. I had signed up for the New Zealand Territorials and just got my parachute wings. The whole company came through to visit me in hospital but I only remember a couple of them. At that stage I had no idea I was paralysed so my family was much more affected than me. After 11 days I was stable enough to be flown to Christchurch Hospital, first to the intensive care unit and then to the spinal unit, where I spent the next six months. I had been in excruciating pain and heavily sedated with morphine. They weaned me off that in a week. The spinal unit was dingy and dark but at least people could be themselves there. I made many good friends and it was easier to accept my situation because I was among ‘paras’ and ‘quads’. They whizzed around in their wheelchairs and did wheel stands. I wanted to have a go as well, but the first day I was put in a chair I realised it wasn’t that easy.
I went home to my family in Hawera on my release. I had had family support throughout but now it was mum’s chance to mollycoddle me. I hit the drink pretty heavily at this stage, partly because I got bored. Back then, the public found it hard to accept disabled people. Even five years ago, children would say to their parents when they saw me on the street: “Look at him. What happened to him?” and parents would turn away embarrassed. I like the innocence and naturalness of children. Sometimes adults used to act as though I couldn’t speak and would ask the person with me what I would like. That used to really grate. They were taking away my self-respect. I used to have them on – I was a rat bag but I got a lot of fun out of it. Now I let the comments go, but in the acute stage, they would hit pretty hard. You never fully get over what I’ve been through. There are times of despondency and little bouts of depression, but these only last two or three days.
The thing I looked forward to most at this stage was returning for regular checkups to the Christchurch spinal unit. I was back among people I could relate to. I’d created some marvellous bonds with staff and patients – it wasn’t uncommon for patients to marry staff members. But I had to get on with the job of learning to live again. Everything was different. I had to organise my day carefully, even down to the trips to the bathroom. Often places I wanted to go were not set up for wheelchairs. It was easy to take that as rejection but it’s not. It is simply that people haven’t adjusted to the needs of the disabled. Some friend fell away. You find out who your true friends are. I have only two friends who have stuck with me through my whole journey.
The only thing I wanted to do when I returned to Hawera was to get back to shooting ducks. I didn’t make it for the start of that season but was there for the start of the next, at the Pihama-Oeo Duck Shooting Club’s duck shooters day, where my father had shot over the years. I got myself into a harness so I wouldn’t fall out of my chair when I shot at the clay targets. I had a good eye for shooting, not as good as my younger brother, but good enough. (I’d done a lot of duck and pheasant shooting and was just getting into deer shooting before my accident.) Dad was an important element of my transformation into a paraplegic sportsman. We started shooting clay targets together. It was marvellous to participate, father and son together. At this stage I didn’t win any competitions. I was still trying to perfect techniques. I learnt to balance on the edge of my chair so I didn’t fall when the gun recoiled and was able to remove the restricting harness. Soon I started to travel to other clubs around the North Island to compete.
I started in B grade and it took me four years of perseverance to make it into A grade. Then I won my first provincial championship, in Manawatu. I found another keen shooter to travel with to competitions. It was at this stage I found work. The Pihama-Oeo club asked me to rewind electric motors for them. I also bought a burger bar in Hawera, but didn’t work in it. Then romance stepped into my life, which was good because I needed to get away from home and become independent. My lady friend and I moved to Rotorua, much to my mum’s disgust. The relationship didn’t last and I found myself running a boarding house with five teenage students to look after. That took me out of myself and I finally found my own personality, which had been hidden a long time. I realised for the first time I didn’t have to be ‘grown up and capable’ all the time. In 1988 I gave up shooting in. There was life to be lived and I felt I’d gone as far as I could with the sport.
My next romantic encounter drew me to Taumaranui, where I married and opened up an unsuccessful sports shop, and resumed shooting. The marriage lasted five years. My greatest regret is that I had no children. As you get older, family has more meaning to you.
I moved to Warkworth in 2001 for a job that didn’t eventuate. I tried to join the Rodney Gun Club and found it was defunct, so I joined the closest one – Waitemata Gun Club. Competition became a serious focus of my life and in 2005 I won gold medals in theOlympic and Double Trap at the inaugural Oceania Clay Target Shooting Championships for the Disabled in Brisbane.
I’m looking forward to the world open championships. It will be a level playing field with no special provisions for me. My goal on my return is to set up a New Zealand clay bird shooting association for the disabled. There’s a huge future for disabled people in this sport. I’m hoping my appearance at the world competition will have huge impact around the world and people will realise we are not disabled when it comes to shooting. I have ongoing help from my iwi, Ngati Ruanui, and sponsorship for the world competition from the Lion Foundation and many Warkworth area businesses and groups.
