Lees remembers hat-trick Petherick

Warren Lees is telling stories about Peter Petherick.

They were former teammates 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.

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.’’

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.’’