Cricket history marks 125th milestone
Who knew the English cricket team refused to come out for the second day of amatch against Manawatu¯? Or that amanawatu¯ representative team walked off in protest and forfeited the Hawke Cup to bitter rivals Hawke’s Bay?
Who was aware that the strong Feilding clubs lorded over all Manawatu¯ cricket in the early years and that there was an Oroua Cricket Association?
Such gems were exhumed by former
Manawatu¯ repsmurray Brown and Alec Astle as they researched 125 Not Out, a history of 125 years of Manawatu¯ cricket, their book due out for celebrations this week.
When the 125th milestone was mooted, Brown figured awritten record was well overdue. The 100 years had drifted by unrecorded and yet, when he broached the idea of a book, eyeballs rolled to the ceiling and Brown had a job. A dual Manawatu¯ cricket and rugby rep, who in 1974 captained the rugby team from halfback and played for Manawatu¯ and Central Districts at cricket, Brown, amanawatu¯
Cricket Association life member, had worked in education from 1971 and so was well qualified as an author. When cricket zealot Astle, the former Palmerston North Boys’ High School deputy rector who now lives in Christchurch, became aware of the project, he too was in.
Somehow they got themassive project done in a year, all voluntary of course. A grant from the Earle Creativity Trust helped fund the project which blew out to 442 pages, 100 pages of them statistics collated by Astle.
After countless hours ferreting through newspapers and meeting minutes, Brown has become an authority on Manawatu¯’s early cricketing history. Hence the story of the Englishmen, playing under the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) banner, who abandoned Palmerston North in 1936.
That same year, a hurricane demolished the grandstand at the then sportsground and the scoreboard had blown over. After day one the MCC team’s gear was stored in the decrepit grandstand only for overnight rain to drench the lot. The posh English chaps baulked at that and departed.
Walking off in a huff during amatch is a different kettle and Manawatu¯ has the dubious honour of being the only team in New Zealand to have done that.
When they took the vaunted Hawke Cup on tour to Napier in 1947, the match turned into a fiasco. Bowling for Hawke’s Bay was formermanawatu¯ player Tommy Downes, a great appealer and each time he bellowed, up went the umpire’s finger. Manawatu¯ captain Red Norris could take no more. He asked for a replacement umpire and, when refused, he led the team off to a hostile reception from the home crowd.
The book is loaded with biographies of Manawatu¯ personalities including profiles of all the New Zealand players, 31 men and eight women. Norm Gallichan, a tall leftarm spinner, was one of them in the 1920s but was given only 11 games for Wellington, the parent body who had a patronising attitude towards Manawatu¯ players. He remains Manawatu¯’s top wicket-taker with 387, while Astle is fourth (208). Dave Fulton has scoredmost runs (5230) ahead of David Meiring (3964).
All that is among mountains of reading in 125 Not Out, including chapters on club and Boys’ High cricket, the women’s game, rep cricket, way too much to summarise here.