The Club was honoured to be able to host Their Excellencies Dame Patsy Reddy, Governor- General of New Zealand and her husband Sir David Gascoigne to dinner which was held in the dining room of St Andrew’s College. The size of the dining room limited the number of attendees which were 90.
Mrs Christine Leighton, Rector of St Andrew’s, acted as hostess to what was an outstanding evening with pre-dinner drinks and nibbles being served in the staff lounge.
Their Excellencies were escorted into the dining room by resounding bagpipes where a welcome was extended by Mitchell Hay of Christchurch Boys’ High School, followed by Mrs Christine Leighton, and then Sir John Hansen, President of The Willows.
Grace was said by Jesse Frew from St Andrew’s College, Loyal Toast proposed by Jack Mockford from Southland Boys’ High School, followed by entrée and then a magnificent musical presentation by Samuel Jeon on the piano and his sister Christine Jeon on the cello.
Dinner was followed by Her Excellency reflecting on her experiences with cricket and sport and then followed the introduction of the guest speaker by Ben Lockrose from Otago Boys’ High School. Andy Ellis the former All Black scrum half spoke of his career identifying both the highs and the lows over the past 20 years.
A Vote of Thanks was given by Nick Lidstone from Christ’s College followed by dessert and a presentation given by Matt Parr, Master at Christchurch Boys’ High School on a powerpoint display composed by Alex Reese on his Cricket Live Foundation operating in the slums of Sri Lanka and now commencing in Mumbai.
Finally a Toast to Sport was proposed by Richard Turpie from Christ’s College with Sir John Hansen concluding the evening with a Vote of Thanks to Christine Leighton and others who had helped with the evening.
On the Sunday morning Their Excellencies arrived at the ground at 10.45am and were introduced to both teams. This was followed by a 5 minute reflection given by the Very Reverend Mike Hawke, Dean of Nelson Cathedral in order to remember John Hammond, a Willows committee member who had recently passed away.
Play commenced at 11am with the Governor- General’s XI batting first scoring a total of 166. Good scores were from Max Chu 37, Mitchell Hay 34, Nick Lidstone 26, and bowling for The Willows XI Ewen Chatfield 4/26 and Andrew Nuttall 4/24.
The Willows opening batsmen strode to the centre full of confidence but were soon rattled when after two overs their score was 3/14. The side, other than for a good 40 scored by James Marshall, only totalled 118 with the major bowlers being Richard Turpie 3/13, Beau Hourigan 3/35, Jack Mockford 2/12 and Matt Munro 2/10.
This was the first win for a Governor-General’s XI with five previous losses to Sir Anand Satyanand and to Lt. Gen. Sir Jerry Mateparae.
At the conclusion of the game a review of the two innings were discussed by the older members of the group with the GG’s Youth XI.
Summing up the day the Very Reverend Mike Hawke said it was the best day’s cricket he had experienced for many, many years as the banter between the older past New Zealand members kept the game fully alive from start to finish.
The Governor-General’s Youth XI
Max Chu Otago BHS Christchurch
Mitchell Hay BHS
Jesse Frew St Andrew’s College
Beckham Greenall-Wheeler King’s HS Dunedin
Ben Lockrose Otago BHS
Jack Mockford Southland BHS
Rhys Mariu St Andrew’s College
Richard Turpie Christ’s College
Beau Hourigan Wanganui Collegiate
Matt Munro St Bede’s College
Nic Lidstone Christ’s College
The Willows XI
Dion Ebrahim Zimbabwe
Paul McEwan New Zealand
Andy Ellis All Blacks
James Marshall New Zealand
Hamish Marshall New Zealand
Ervin McSweeney New Zealand
Ewen Chatfield New Zealand
Very Rev. Mike Hawke South Canterbury
Dave Kelly Central Districts
Grant Elliott New Zealand
Andrew Nuttall Canterbury
Evan Gray New Zealand