‘The Napoleon of North Canterbury’
Mike Dormer was one of those rare people who, it is said, dreamt with his eyes open. With foresight and vision he turned a piece of farmland in Loburn, North Canterbury, into the Willows cricket club, which fosters the game among secondary schools from the mid1990s to the current day.
He developed the ground to play oneday matches on Sundays against schools, chiefly from around the South Island, and other invitation teams.
Providing youth with opportunities was one of Dormer’s abiding passions, which he pursued almost until his dying day of April 19, just three days shy of his
84th birthday.
A crowd of several hundred mourners turned out for his farewell at Christchurch Boys’ High School auditorium and to acknowledge the role he played in business and sport in the Canterbury community.
The determined Dormer never took no for an answer and in his own way, beavering behind the scenes, managed to make things happen that others only wished for.
That he did not have a picture of himself on the front page of his funeral sheet, instead a shot of the Willows Club, no doubt at his insistence was typical of the man.
It wasn’t just sport or business where Dormer was so effective, his networking skills led him to do great work for the Salvation Army, which honoured him by playing while on his deathbed and at his funeral.
Major Campbell Roberts, who formerly headed the organisation in Canterbury, spoke about how much Dormer did for the organisation after being identified as one of the most influential people in the city who could help the group.
Dormer was concerned about the ‘‘Sallies’’ losing relevance with the young, who may have not known of its work but who they could turn to for help in tough times. He also recognised that its fundraising methods, previously collecting going through packed pubs, was on the wane with societal changes to drinking.
Dormer told Roberts the organisation needed to be more visible in the community, especially to the young, so devised an ambitious plan where they would take a programme into secondary schools. The board agreed to Dormer’s seemingly far-fetched plan but probably quietly thought it would never take off.
Given schools’ reluctance to be involved with religious sectors and its many sensitivities, Dormer had a massive job.
But in typically no-nonsense fashion the dapper Dormer, invariably dressed in shirt, tie and jacket, rolled up his shirt sleeves and got to work.
One of the first things he did was somehow get a direct line to Dire Straits band leader Mark Knopfler and secure the rights to using the tune Brothers in Arms for the educational video for three years – and at no cost.
It had been estimated the project would cost about $300,000 but as Dormer got the programme into 75 of the 82 schools in the South Island the costs reached $1 million, all of the funding raised by Dormer.
Some 70,000 secondary school children heard the presentation that the Army was there for them.
Dormer also sought to further raise the Army’s profile with various inventive fundraising measures. He once secured approval for the Army to collect outside Addington Raceway on a New Zealand Cup day.
To secure the approval, Dormer had agreed to the Salvation Army sponsoring a race on the programme with Major Roberts to present the winning owners/ trainer with the spoils of success in the birdcage.
Roberts knew little of this beforehand until receiving a call, shortly before the day, from his superior asking of the appropriateness of the backing given that the Army actively discouraged gambling.
The event still successfully went ahead while Dormer was also involved in another fundraiser auctioning sporting memorabilia hosted at the Christchurch Casino, which also raised eyebrows.
Cricket was Dormer’s chief sporting love, although rugby was a close second.
He excelled at both during his schooldays at Nelson College where he was a boarder after being sent there from home in Lower Hutt.
He captained the first XI in the sixth form and was also offered the captaincy of the rugby first XV and to be head prefect on his return in the seventh, but work and family took precedence.
He continued playing cricket for Wellington College Old Boys and made the New Zealand Brabin Shield (under-20) tournament team twice as a wicketkeeper-batsman. He then moved to Auckland and made the provincial squad in the early 1960s.
One of his cricketing highlights was playing for the London New Zealand team on The Oval in London against the touring New Zealand side in 1965 and keeping wicket to England test bowler Jim Laker, who once took 19 wickets in a test.
He studied accountancy in Auckland and then travelled extensively overseas working in sales primarily in Cairo, London and Adelaide, where he met future wife Winsome. Dormer loved Christchurch with its parks and close proximity to the sea and the mountains and settled in the city on his return to New Zealand to raise a family.
He first worked for the ANZ Bank before linking with Independent Fisheries, which was owned by the Shadbolt family, Harry and Charles.
Many trips were made overseas to Russia, Korea and Japan as fishing business was thrashed out while Dormer was also the consular representative for Chile for 12 years.
When Winsome Dormer bought the parcel of land at Loburn it was suggested ‘‘it would make a pretty good cricket ground’’ and so the seed was sown.
The ground was developed in the mid1990s and matches were played as gradually the pitches, pavilion and surrounds took shape, season upon season.
Governors-general Sir Anand Satyanand and Sir Jerry Mateparae were persuaded to be involved and latterly one of the highlights of the year has been a GG’s Youth XI, playing against a side of former Black Caps and first-class players.
Over 27 seasons now, 592 matches have been played with 370 school XIs having been involved, with most recently this past season a match between two female school first XIs.
An annual scholarship was established with the Matfen club in Northumberland in 2001 where two promising youngsters spent six months during the English season playing for the local club while working on a country estate.
Tours away sprung up and nine such trips have been made to Asia, including visits to Oman, India, Sharjah, Sri Lanka and Thailand with only coaching staff on the trips.
From one such visit in 2008 a young Willows player Alex Reese was so taken he set about creating the Cricket Live Foundation programme in India and Sri Lanka in 2013, helping teach hundreds of underprivileged children lessons in cricket and life in Mumbai and Colombo.
Dormer developed a close connection with Merrill Fernando, the owner and founder of Dilmah Tea, and his son, Dilhan, who took over the business, and they helped provide financial support for the foundation.
Dormer always had the development of youth at heart but became increasingly concerned at the lack of suitable coaching structures in secondary schools around the country.
His frustration boiled over last year when he launched a public broadside at New Zealand Cricket, accusing it of letting the sport become run down at secondary school level. His mind was put at rest by a visit to Christchurch not long before his death from NZC board chairman Martin Snedden, who gave him assurances the issues he raised were in hand and a plan created.
The Willows club will carry on with one of Dormer’s two sons, Ben, taking over the mantle assumed by his father. The other, Peter, heads Dormer Construction.
The Willows’ president of recent years, Nick Davidson, recalled getting into a disagreement with the determined Dormer over the best way forward on a certain issue regarding the club.
Davidson said he often acquiesced to Dormer but on this occasion was reluctant. Dormer told him: ‘‘Well you take the high road and I’ll take the low road but I’ll get there first.’’
Former Black Caps batsman John Wright spoke of him as ‘‘the Napoleon of North Canterbury’’, the short of stature Dormer running matches in military manner, bustling about organising lunches, tea and drinks and being there from opening the ground to being the last to leave after drying the dishes.
‘‘Hundreds of tributes have come in commenting on how driven, pugnacious and autocratic he could be but also the generosity he showed,’’ Davidson said.
Davidson described Dormer as a force of nature who believed that if players learned to respect the game it would serve them well in the greater game of life.
When the time came for Dormer’s coffin to be carried out the six pallbearers, all members of the Willows club, donned their caps, as no doubt Dormer would have wished, and Sir Richard Hadlee lifted the bails from a set of Willows stumps on the stage. His innings was over, but what an innings.