Outstanding players dominate school’s cricket story
Former New Plymouth Boys’ High School teacher Max Carroll’s research of more than 100 years of cricketing history at the school has revealed an interesting trend among past First XI sides.
Carroll, a former cricket coach, discovered nearly every team he came across produced one or two outstanding individual players who dominated matches through skill and determination.
Among them were Martin Donnelly, Tom Larkin and Ted Christensen who drew large crowds as they shattered opposition teams during the 1930s.
Donnelly’s highest club score of 187 for NPBHS against Western Park in 1934 stood as a school record for 76 years, until Kane Robertson hit 220 against Inglewood in 2010. In 1936 Donnelly took 10 wickets for eight runs against Old Boys and set a record partnership with Larkin, of 234, which stood until 1965.
Both Donnelly, who played seven tests for New Zealand, and Larkin played for Taranaki while at school.
Larkin, 103, a former ambassador to Japan and the school’s oldest surviving cricketer, still follows the game from his Wellington home.
Other outstanding cricketers who went on to higher honours were Ted Meuli, Lawrie Miller, and Jim Crocker who took seven wickets for seven runs against Nelson in 1949.
Later John Morrison, Alistair Jordan,
Gary Robertson and current Black Cap Will Young made memorable contributions to the First XI on the field.
Carroll’s book begins with the NPBHS First XI playing club cricket in Taranaki in 1907. But it was not until the arrival of Chris Bottrill on the teaching staff in 1914 that the sport became more organised, Carroll said.
Bottrill had a passion for the game and made his presence felt, playing for the school as well as club and Taranaki.
He became the driving force for the game at the school for more than 30 years until 1945.
During those years NPBHS played regular annual inter-school games with Whanganui Collegiate and Nelson College, and played in the North Taranaki senior club competition.
The biennial away game at Nelson included travelling by railcar and ferry to play a two-day game, before returning to New Plymouth six days later.
The fixture was eventually discontinued due to travel costs, Carroll said.
Carroll said the school had been lucky to have staff who followed on from Bottrill
and had promoted the game at the school with the same passion.
‘‘There’s been people like Gordon Giddy, Rendell Brine and Dion Ebriham who have moved cricket at the school from strength to strength, and who I have huge admiration for,’’ he said.
Carroll’s school cricket history follows histories he has written on NPBHS First XV rugby, and the boarding department.
‘‘I get a great deal of pleasure from writing. It’s not a chore to me, but a relaxation,’’ he said.