Brass goes in to bat,
There were so many army top brass playing a friendly cricket match against farmers in rural Wairarapa that it may have constituted a security risk.
A team full of generals, brigadiers and colonels came together to take on the Tinui All Stars in a game of back-paddock cricket to celebrate the settlement’s historic links to the first Anzac Day service.
The preferred paddock was a bit boggy underfoot so the game was played on the town’s tennis courts.
Major General Peter Kelly described his team as consisting of the top echelon of army officers but not necessarily top cricketers.
He said the game was part of efforts to maintain relationships with grassroots communities who contributed so much to Anzac remembrance.
‘‘This is an opportunity for us with the local community to commemorate Anzac in a slightly different way,’’ he said.
Tinui’s claim to fame is that it was the first place in the world to commemorate Anzac Day in 1916.
After the Reverend Basil Ashcroft held a 7am service, his congregation hauled a cross up to the top of a nearby hill as a memorial.
‘‘A small farming community lost 12 of their own in that preceding year and decided to mark the occasion and put a bloody big cross up the hill there for posterity.
‘‘This annual fixture is a way for us to say to the people of Tinui, we really appreciate what your forebears did,’’ Kelly said.
Tinui farmer and handy wicketkeeper Tom Brown joked that it was just as well there were no Russian spies in the country because, with so many high-ranking army personnel in one place, it could create a security risk.
He said his team was playing at about the level you would expect with very little practise.
Lieutenant
Colonel Hamish Gibbons was playing and would also speak at the Anzac Service in Tinui on Wednesday.
He was part of the team that worked on improving the track up to the memorial cross on Mt Maunsell.
An army unit plans to complete more work on the track later in the year.
‘‘This community has been so supportive of this history and this is a nice way to link back in. It makes you humble to be a soldier,’’ Gibbons said.