Remember, fellow Willowers, back to your selection and first game for your respective high school 1st XI. For many it came in Year 10 (the odd freak player made it in Year 9). Like others before you on debut, you probably arrived early, nervous and in awe of the company. These were, after all, the cream of the senior school you were mixing with. Their school blazers were dripping with colours awards, prefect badges and cricket distinction endorsements compared to your lapel which was decidedly bare.
You slink into a corner in the pavilion, reluctant to park your “coffin” for fear it might be the lucky spot for your drag-stepping fast bowler with those steel-capped boots and the snarl. He enters. You thank God he is indeed in your team today and not the opposition. Ever the tiny-tot you ask him, meekly, if you can park up here. He gives an indifferent nod and your gaze transfers to others in the shed. The assembled eleven looks formidable. You breathe deeply and look down, mindful not to engage any eye contact. These are for sure your idols, heroes and role models from the senior school and this is your first match day in their company.
Actually, I have few memories of my first 1st XI outing but I do remember my first rep game. In fact Mike Dormer was playing that day, in a match between Waikato and Auckland in 1965. He was one ’keeper and the other was a man greatly admired as a player and gentleman, Eric Petrie (14 tests for New Zealand 1955-1966). Indeed, ’keepers form their own special bond and they like nothing more than meeting up, playing and comparing technique. At that time New Zealand was blessed with some wonderful wicket-keepers, men like: Artie Dick, John Ward, Robin Schofield, and a younger Southern man in Barry Milburn, as well as Eric and our MED.
My role model in that first rep game stood beside Eric at first slip, a position he held throughout our playing days. He was our opening batsman and “slipper”, Wynne Bradburn. He was there too when I played in my first 1st XI game (in the opposition) in the Hamilton senior competition in 1962 and he had a kindly word as I arrived out to bat. Years later, on leaving school, it was little surprise that I wanted to play club cricket in the same side as Wynne; so in 1965 I joined the strong Old Technicals Cricket Club in Hamilton. And now, playing Auckland, Wynne was there.
So for my 1st XI, Old Tech, Waikato and later in the Northern Districts Plunket Shield team I learnt a lot from my mentor. Wynne played 2 test matches for New Zealand in the 1963-64 season. He didn’t score as many runs as he would have liked for his country but for me that didn’t matter. It was the quality of the man that counted for me. Wynne brought impeccable standards and high expectations to our cricket at that time. He was top drawer. Wynne was a “stickler for cricket etiquette” and it is this I want to expand upon.
Wynne’s sense of fair-play won the immediate respect of his team mates and the opposition alike. He played hard but I can never recall one instance of dissent, unsportsmanlike conduct or anything other than utmost respect to others and the rules of the game. Several times over the years, when captain, Wynne would recall players back to the crease when wrongly given out. Wynne was unique. He was traditional in his thinking. He respected cricketers who arrived early at the ground and went through certain preparatory routines. What were they?
• Your first job, before throw-downs, was to extract your boots and pads and apply whitener from the bucket he had refilled the night before. You left them in the sun to dry and then gave your bat a brisk sand-down.
• On the way out to warm-up, you were expected to stop at the umpire room and exchange greetings and pleasantries with the umpires of the day.
• Throw-downs, slip catches, some pick and returns to Eric (quite gentle by comparison to today’s drills) preceded the mandatory cup of tea. Match tactics came from the senior “pro’s” (there were no motivators, psychologists, video analysts etc to back them). Every side had their convivial team manager (generically called “The ’Ger”) who would work with and guide the “young blood”.
• Before batting Wynne would check the young charges in a fatherly sort of way. He instructed us on the correct way to fold our creams and to strap the pads over the socks (never to tuck trousers into socks or to have flapping pad straps). This was done to reduce the chance of a noise as the ball brushed by and which could bring an early demise at the hand of an umpire.
• Wynne had a fetish about bat handles, shorts, watches and sunglasses at cricket. Only black- handled bats were permissible and any hint of colour was considered sacrilegious. Shorts, were for beach wear and never at cricket, all watches were off and he veritably twitched at the thought of a cricketer wearing shades in the middle. J.R. Reid (New Zealand’s great all-rounder of 58 tests from 1949-1965) did wear sunglasses against us one day at the Basin Reserve and he smashed us all around the park; sunglasses were alright for a giant in the game but not for country lads from the Waikato. There were also expectations from Wynne regarding the wearing of cricket caps. Floppy hats were a “no-no” and our peaked cricket caps were either to be worn on our heads or left in the shed; never to be folded (no matter how neatly that could be done) and placed in the back pocket of our creams during play.
• For Wynne cricket was always about courtesy. One had to “clap the opposing skipper” into bat, and when taking guard it was prefaced with the word “Sir” (or “Mr Hastie” if Hamilton’s test umpire of 7 tests from 1974- 1981, was standing) and never “mate”.
I was fortunate in my cricket up-bringing to have men like Wynne, Eric, Bert Sutcliffe (42 tests for New Zealand from 1947-1965), Bruce Pairaudeau (13 test for the West Indies from 1953-1957), and other first class players heavily involved in both the club and rep scene. That is not the case today. We didn’t need the proliferation of coaches then as those senior players kept us under a “watchful eye” and corrected wayward tendencies.
At The Willows our philosophy is to invite secondary school XI’s to play at Loburn against experienced present and ex-first class players. We hope the young schoolboys will learn and appreciate the correct way to play and enjoy the great game. This is the legacy The Willows Cricket Club will bring to the new talent coming through. It is certainly something that would have gained the unconditional endorsement from my role model, W.P. Bradburn.
WP Bradburn, suffered a fatal heart attack (on September 25, 2008) hours after the funeral of his wife (Olwyn) of 48-years who died five days earlier. He died with all his extended family present. Wynne was a diabetic since the age of 15 and he had artificial limbs fitted after having both his legs amputated but he continued to walk and help cricketers right up to the time of his death.