Petherick a great character says Lees

Warren Lees is telling stories about Peter Petherick.

They were former team-mates and flatmates and Lees was behind the stumps when Petherick took his hat-trick on test debut at the age of 34.

He talks about the first time they crossed paths and the last. About the hat-trick. They are happy memories at a sad time after the passing of ‘Pistle’ in Perth on Sunday night, aged 72.

Lees remembers the day Petherick, aged 33, turned up at an Otago trial at the prompting of Glenn Turner.

‘‘I was Otago captain and therefore one of the captains for the trial.

‘‘I walked into the dressing room and there was a guy in the corner reading the paper.

‘‘I put my bag down and said ‘good morning’ to everyone. He was smoking a cigarette, reading the paper and he didn’t say anything.

‘‘I went outside where the guys had gathered and I said ‘who’s father is that’. I thought it was one of the young guys in the trial’s father.’’

Petherick took nine wickets in one innings for Otago and was in the New Zealand team a year later, where he wrote himself into the record books with a test hat-trick on debut against Pakistan in Lahore in 1976.

Pakistan were 336-4 with Javed Miandad and Asif Iqbal having added 281 for the fifth wicket when Petherick’s offspin accounted for Miandad (163), Wasim Raja (0) and Intikhab Alam (0) in successive deliveries.

‘‘He had 0-96 and he came to bowl to Javed who top edged a catch to Richard (Hadlee) by the umpire at square leg,’’ Lees recalled.

‘‘So he had 1-96 and in came Wasim Raja, a left hander, who drove one back at Pistle, who amazingly caught it. He couldn’t even catch it when I threw it back to him so this was quite a surprise.

‘‘All of a sudden he had 2-96. Next in was Intikhab Alam, he played at Surrey with Geoff Howarth. Howarth brought himself to a very silly point. Intikhab prodded forward hesitantly and the ball gloved him or squeezed out no distance and Geoff lent forward and took it one handed two feet from the bat.’’

Needless to say there were celebrations at the end of the day and Lees remembers fondly Petherick launching into a rendition of ‘‘How Great Thou Art’’.

Lees said one of Petherick’s best qualities was his ability to make light of tense situations.

‘‘I got quite competitive against certain teams because I was captain and we (Otago) are always the underdog and one day I gave the team a real dressing down at afternoon tea against Central Districts after we had fielded really poorly between lunch and tea.

‘‘I said ‘if I’ve got to put up with this again I’m going to go to the selectors after the game and we are going to make changes’. I said ‘after tea I want this and this and this’. Richard Webb came into bowl after tea and as he came in, we all crouched down and I heard Pistle call out from gully, ‘is this all right Wal’. I looked over and he was smoking a cigarette in the gully. He could be a funny man.’’

Petherick wasn’t one for laps of the park or winter training. He liked a beer at the bar and if the mood was good he could entertain with a card trick or a song.

‘‘He was a lovely character,’’ Lees said

‘‘He lived with me for a while. He had separated from his wife and my wife had died in a car accident.

‘‘He lived with me for four months and it set me back about three years.

‘‘Most of his bowling was flight and guile and he had a wee bit of outswing with his slower arm ball. There was minimal effort in his run-up, it was a 3m shuffle to the wicket.’’

Petherick had three seasons with Otago and three with Wellington, taking 189 wickets at 24.44 across 52 first class matches. He only played six tests, taking 16 wickets at 42.56.

He then embarked on a successful lawn bowls career, the highlight being an appearance in the pair’s final at the national championships in 2006. His last club was Central Levin.

Petherick was the third of six brothers, who grew up in Ranfurly near Central Otago.

His brother Brian, also a keen lawn bowler, said Petherick moved to Perth three years ago to be near his son and live in a warmer climate.

He said Peter had been dogged by heart problems over the years and that had been the cause of his death.

He last spoke to Peter on Tuesday when ‘‘he didn’t sound good’’.