A book on the life and times of a blind wrestler who heralded from Wellington and who was controversially dropped from the 1950 Empire Games team in Auckland, will be released privately in Wellington on 1 June and nationwide into bookstores on 1 August. Frederick William Adams who was also known as 'Bill' and 'Googa', beat the odds life dished out to become of the best wrestlers New Zealand ...A book on the life and times of a blind wrestler who heralded from Wellington and who was controversially dropped from the 1950 Empire Games team in Auckland, will be released privately in Wellington on 1 June and nationwide into bookstores on 1 August. Frederick William Adams who was also known as 'Bill' and 'Googa', beat the odds life dished out to become of the best wrestlers New Zealand ...has ever seen which included winning the national title in the highly contested lightweight division no less than nine times and competing in a National Championships aged 63.

Frederick William Adams who was also known as 'Bill' and 'Googa', beat the odds life dished out to become of the best wrestlers New Zealand has ever seen which included winning the national title in the highly contested lightweight division no less than nine times and competing in a National Championships aged 63. Selected for the biggest sporting event New Zealand has ever seen - the 1950 Empire Games in Auckland - he was dropped amid allegations and controversy.
"I have felt very compelled to write this book for a long time," says the author, his paternal grand-daughter, and an experienced journalist of many years, Yvette Adams.
"Although I was only 12 when he died, I understood early on that my grandfather was no ordinary man and, it was hard to ever forget it when every family member and a vast number of other people from all walks of life insisted on telling me stories about him for many years after he died. So since about 1996 I have been researching and writing his story, and gaining the life experience I felt it also required to do justice to it. As a 29-year-old female with perfect vision I would be lying if I said it wasn't a challenge to write about a blind male wrestler from a completely different era to me, but I am really happy with how it has come out. "
Adams' grand-father was born to a New Zealand World War I soldier and an Englishwoman in Lyme Regis, Dorset 1919. He came out to New Zealand as a baby and on the long ship journey contracted English measles which left his corneas permanently scarred, and rendered him with severely impaired vision for the rest of his life.
However, he didn't let this, or an unsettling upbringing which led to him leaving home at 12, World War II or the Depression, stop him enjoying an exceptionally long-lasting and eventful sporting career, apart from the enormous disappointment of being dropped from the Empire Games in Auckland.
"It would ruin the story if I were to tell you why he was dropped and how it all panned out thereafter - you'll just have to read the book to find out," says the author.
"But I am sure anyone will be inspired by his incredible life story. He was certainly an inspirational man to many and I hope that that's exactly the effect the book will have on people - to inspire them to get over whatever it is that is holding them back and live life with true passion," Ms Adams, who was born and bred in Lyall Bay, but who now lives in Queensland, Australia says.
Ms Adams, who is the mother of a two year old, says she has thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of self-publishing, and will be encouraging other people to record their family and local area histories in any way they can, when she comes to Wellington in early June to promote the book.
$1 of every sale of the book More Than Meets The Eye in New Zealand will be donated to the Royal New Zealand Blind Foundation.
For more information see: www.morethanmeetstheeye.co.nz.

ENDS

To arrange an interview with the author whilst she is in New Zealand at the end of May/early June or again in August promoting the book, contact her on info@morethanmeetstheeye.co.nz or call 0061 405 022 977

Testimonials from some influential members of the NZ sporting community

"Yvette Adams has done New Zealand sport, and her family, a favour by writing More Than Meets the Eye. The iniquitous treatment meted out to her grandfather, Googa Adams, at the 1950 Empire Games was covered up at the time and has remained shrouded in mystery - until now. Googa was one of the great personalities of New Zealand sport and Yvette Adams is to be congratulated for this well-researched and readable biography of a fascinating character."
- Joseph Romanos - Sports columnist and author of 34 books.

"As sport concentrates more and more on the transitory immediate moments, the instant emotions of success of failure, the greater the value of those who stop to record what has been. Our past shapes our future in sport as much as in any other sphere of human activity, and Yvette Adams deserves a gold medal for opening one window on what has been."
- Ron Palenski, Acclaimed sports writer and Chief Executive of the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame.

An official book launch will be held at Maranui Cafe on 1 June, from 6:30pm. Entry is free, but RSVPs to info@morethanmeetstheeye.co.nz pre event are essential.

Events will also be held:

- Kilbirnie Public Library, Thu 8 June, 6:30pm.