Former New Zealand Test opener Bruce Murray remembers the greatest cricketer he ever played with.
John Richard Reid, CNZM, OBE (1928–2020)
Honorary Member of The Willows (1999–2020)
As an eight or nine year old, I was well aware of John Reid. He was a local Hutt Valley lad, attended Waiwhetu School and then Hutt Valley High School (HVHS). I had arrived with my family in Epuni, Lower Hutt, from Napier at the beginning of 1947. I was the youngster in my family, but my brother Graeme (Bunter) enrolled at HVHS the year after John Reid had left it in 1946. HVHS was well-known in those days as a sporting school with very strong 1st XVs and 1st XIs. Jim Fitzgerald and Colin Loader became All Blacks; Don Jowett and Lionel Smith represented NZ in athletics (and gave great pace to the 1st XV backline), and Peter Osborne was a long-serving full back for Wellington. Even my brother had a few games for Wellington before injury abruptly ended his rugby days. But good and all as those players may have been, the king of both rugby and cricket at HVHS was John Reid.
In the early 1960s I commenced my teaching career at HVHS with numerous staff still at the school who remembered John well. In their collective view, they could see that he was certainly destined to play cricket for NZ (he was in the 1st XI from Form 3), but they were equally clear that he was an even better rugby player, and was certain to become an All Black. A half back or first five-eighth, he was low-slung, fast, broad-shouldered, and immensely strong. Sadly, rheumatic fever during his school days put an end to his rugby career, enabling him to concentrate on cricket.
His debut in first-class cricket came in 1947/48, at a time when a normal New Zealand first-class cricket season was of a maximum of three matches, or six innings, or even shorter if weather, injury, or a strong batting side only batted once in a match. Matches then were only of three days. (Australian cricketers always played four-day matches and in English county cricket in 1947, teams each played up to 30 first-class matches in one season; 61 players scored 1,000+ runs, and of them, two players scored more than 3,000 runs; 14 more than 2,000; and 51 batsmen had more than 40 innings in that one season.) No wonder it took 26 years of Tests (1930–1956) for NZ to register its first win!
John Reid made an immediate impact in that season scoring over 200 runs at an average of 48, and in 1949 was selected, aged 21, to tour with New Zealand to England, as a batsman, a bowler, and the reserve wicketkeeper. He played 25 matches on that tour, scoring 1,448 runs in 40 innings at 41.33 (four centuries), and taking 13 wickets at 30.00. In fielding he took 26 catches and stumped six. After that most successful tour, Wellington were anxious to retain John’s services as the leading cricketer he had already become, so arrangements were made to have him appointed to a coaching role for both the Wellington and Hutt Valley Cricket Associations. That led to my first meeting with John, for I was of one of a number of local lads selected to be coached by him for a season or two at the Hutt Recreation Ground (and during school time!). So, aged 9 or 10, and in a state of high excitement, off I went to meet John Reid, my schoolboy idol.
Eight years later I was to again meet up with him, when selected, fresh out of HVHS in the 1958/59 season, to play for Wellington. Thereafter, I played under his captaincy of Wellington until he retired after the conclusion of New Zealand’s tour of India, Pakistan and England in 1965. On reflection I have come to the view that he was the greatest cricketer I ever played with. His role in NZ cricket is unique, for he led NZ to its first Test win (over West Indies in 1956) and its first drawn Test series in 1961/62 in South Africa.
His 296 (including a world record 15 sixes) at the Basin Reserve in 1962/63 was astonishing; his 58 tests, 34 as captain, was a record at the time; his winning of both the Redpath and Windsor Cups in the same season (1954/55) was startling but well deserved; his 242 first-class appearances; his career record of 16,000+ runs at 41.83, and 445 wickets at 22.55; his outstanding fielding in any position; these all reinforce his reputation and his prowess. I am honoured to have known him for over 70 years, and to have spent about half my cricket career playing alongside him. I am grateful for every remembrance of him.
— Tribute to John Reid by Bruce Murray, QSO, opening batsman for Wellington 1958–1973 and New Zealand 1967–1971.