Cornwall Cricket Club Members’ Interview

Jim Newbigin: Good morning all. [Some microphone interference] I’m at the Cornwall Cricket Club’s new pavilion Cornwall Park, and I’ve got Rex Ingram, whose father was one of the early instigators of Hastings cricket; I’ve got Barry Rosenberg, a life member of Old Boys Hastings Cricket Club; and I’ve got another life member in David Black, who was manager for many, many years. Gentlemen, I thank you for coming this morning, and I will now hand over to Barry Rosenberg.

Barry Rosenberg: So Jimmy, thanks. I’m Barry Rosenberg, and thanks for the opportunity to come here today to give an account of the history of the Cornwall Cricket Club which began in 1990 with the amalgamation of two Hastings clubs, Old Boys Hastings and Whakatu-Mahora. Previously I was aligned to the Old Boys Hastings Cricket Club and was the treasurer there for something like twenty-five years prior to the formation of the Cornwall Cricket Club, and played for the club pretty much since I left school.

So back in the late eighties we were finding it more and more difficult to field the number of teams that the Hawke’s Bay Cricket Association expected us to. Player numbers were diminishing, and we seriously were having some major problems with fielding eleven players in some of the grades. We had a premier side, second grade side, third grade side, fourth grade side, presidents’ grade, and no women’s cricket at that time. So a few of us who were involved in the administration of both the Old Boys Hastings Cricket Club and the Whakatu-Mahora Cricket Club, got our heads together and thought, ‘Well, this can’t carry on’, because not only was our club struggling, but so was the Whakatu-Mahora club, for numbers. So a small committee of us – there was myself, Michael Patton, and Dougal Matheson from Old Boys, and from memory, Mike Boyce and Bob Love from the Whakatu-Mahora Cricket Club sort-of got our heads together and said, “Look, we can’t carry on – this is not sustainable. We need to amalgamate the two clubs.” And so as you can imagine there was some old stalwarts of both clubs who were opposed to the idea; but you know, the reality was that we just couldn’t carry on the way we were, otherwise something had to happen. I mean, we either had to withdraw our whole club from the competition, or amalgamate. And this is common these days, you know, there are a lot of clubs in not only cricket, but in rugby and other sports as well … rugby league … that are amalgamating because of the large number of player numbers dwindling because you know, society has gone the way that … there’re so many choices now for younger people.

So anyway, in the 1990 year at two committee meetings of each club, both clubs decided unanimously to form a new club, and we called that club The Cornwall Cricket Club. It was incorporated in the 1990-1991 season – that was our first, I think our first playing season; and ever since it’s been really successful in terms of its off and on field management. You know, the club has been pretty strong administratively; we’ve had our challenges in the past few years but on the whole the club has gone very well. And in 1996 a pivotal thing happened when the old pavilion – which I would have to say would probably have been the worst in New Zealand at Cornwall cricket ground here at Cornwall Park – was demolished, and now we sit in this very, very modern and very, very nice pavilion. So our premises basically went from the worst in New Zealand to the best in about a year and a half, because now we sit here since 1996 in a new pavilion that was constructed for the benefit of the Cornwall Cricket Club of Hastings. And we hire this out for various reasons, and for different functions. So the building of course [is] worth a lot more now than what it was at the time but as I said, we hire it out for functions, and you know, it’s a focal point in our park. And Cornwall Park of course is unique in that it was left to the city of Hastings for cricket only. There have been some requests to play hockey and one or two other sports on the ground over the years, but they haven’t actually eventuated, and we have continued to play cricket on Cornwall Park.

So the Cornwall Cricket Club now is the only cricket club in Hastings, and you know, we have got involved with junior cricket in a big way, so the Cricket Association has sort-of delegated that responsibility to the Cornwall Cricket Club and members of the Cornwall Cricket Club, and we’ve got a very strong junior cricket club. And we’ve got some great people who have got a really keen interest in their children and the development of the game and their children’s playing, so it’s no problem with coaching and managing the younger junior sides. And they share this pavilion too, and you know, that’s just fantastic for our club because those club members, along with secondary schools, are our succession plan, you know, in terms of our player numbers for the future. And we see that as a critical part of the success and sustainability of this Cornwall Cricket Club.

So our club has, as I said, financially been blessed to have had a lot of grants and support from local community trusts … charitable trusts … which we apply for funding for [from]. It’s a very expensive game to run administratively; I mean the cost of one bat now is something like $800; balls are something like $100 a shot, you know, we’re talking big money now. I mean it’s just mind-blowing what the costs are; and ground fees have gone up and so it goes on. We haven’t yet had a major benefactor or anyone leave anything in his or her will to our club, but we have been working on that from time to time, without success, but however, that’s another story, and something we’ll always try and work on to see if we can get a major benefactor for the upkeep of this building particularly, and maybe the expansion of it, you know, with the junior club coming on we need more storage space, and we’d dearly like to have an office up here at some stage.

But our club now fields and continues to field the premier side, what they call a Senior A side, second grade side, third grade side, two fourth grade sides, a women’s team as well, so we are really now blessed with playing numbers. And the game as whole, I think, has gone through some transitions like most other sports, depending on the success of the national team; and our national team are been very successful in the last few years. And so player numbers are good for our club, and we just look forward to the future, and the playing and administrative success of our club. Just on thirty years no … coming up thirty years on, you know, we’re here you know, with bells and whistles and lights on, and you know, we’re moving forward in the future with some good people. So yeah, that’s roughly a history of our club.

We’ve had some international players play for the club who’ve also attracted other players who’ve given both time and their skill, their expertise, to the younger players, so we’re really blessed in that area. We’ve had a lot of Central Districts and Hawke’s Bay representatives both in men and women; and you know, we’re just sort-of very blessed to have a strong club and you know, a strong people, and I think that’s the key to it all, you know. So sustainability – going into the future we look forward to continued success.

Very good.

Rex Ingram: When you ask a person my age to recollect some things you open the gate to a long discourse. [Chuckle] I’ll keep it as short as possible, but I can give quite a bit of history, particularly with the regard to the original plant that became, ultimately, the Cornwall Cricket Club, with [?a glance?]along the way to the original. And I’ll go back to my own personal connection with cricket. It was in 1943 and the middle of the war years. There was very little cricket being played of course – most of the clubs were in recess. I started at St John’s [College] in 1943 as a twelve-year-old, and found that the team was playing against players who in other teams … well, there was only one or two who were very experienced cricketers, so it was quite a baptism for young guys like myself having to play against these very experienced guys. But we managed. And I don’t know how it came about, but John Henderson – who was a stalwart in the history of this club – and I used to play in the school holidays in the Hastings High School Old Boys Club, who had, I think, picked up round about 1945 and come out of recess.

When I left school I joined the Hastings Cricket Club, and I can arguably say that I would be the only person still alive, who plays with the Hastings club. The late Richard Atkins, who died just recently, [a] stalwart of the Taradale club, mentioned three of four years ago in a press interview [the] accomplishments of the Taradale club, and he compared them with similar accomplishments by the Hastings club about a hundred years previously. I thought to myself, you know, ‘Really … I’m the only one left, and I know nothing about the history of the club.’ I thumbed through F F Cane’s book that he wrote in the mid-1950s called the ‘Cricket Centenary: The Story of Cricket in the Hawke’s Bay’, from 1855 onwards to try and find a reference to the foundation of the Hastings Cricket Club. I could not find anything pertaining to that – I mean I only scanned the pages – but there was a photo of the winners of the 1915 competition, and it was the Hastings Cricket Club. So it obviously had been formed, probably just before the First World War.

Right – so I joined Hastings Cricket Club. Now the Second World War [of] course had come along at this stage, and Hastings club had been in recess; and they resurrected it at the end of the war, round about 1946, and they had two teams, a senior team and a fourth-grade team. The senior team had been the winners of the Hawke’s Bay competition prior to the start of [the] Second World War, and when they resurrected themselves … when they came out of recess … the Cricket Association in their wisdom, or loyalty, decided that Hastings should go into the senior competition as they had been the winners from the pre-war days. It meant relegating the team that had won the competition in the 1945-46 season, Whakatu-Mahora. That caused an absolute outrage. It really was a nasty period in the period of our local cricket. There was a lot of bitterness over Whakatu-Mahora’s relegation to make way for the Hastings club, and the antagonism lasted for years. I think Jim might be the only one that struck people that [who] were still antagonistic in later years. Anyway, the procedure was a dismal failure. Hastings had elderly or virtually middle-aged guys at that stage who’d come back from the war, and they just couldn’t hack it; and the club, after half of the competition, was relegated to the second grade and Whakatu-Mahora were restored to the senior competition.

So when I started after I left school, I joined the Hastings club in that fourth-grade team. When this to-do was sorted out there was a meeting between Hastings and the Hastings High School Old Boys Club – got to get these quite clearly defined. Hastings was not able to carry on any longer; the guys that were in the senior team in particular, all wanted to be out of it – guys like Cyril Martin. They were historic days, pre-wars … Les McCarthy, Tuck Geddis, … they all chucked it in, and so the club combined those Hastings High School Old Boys. It was the only way to save cricket virtually, on the Hastings and Old Boys side of things. The only discussion over it was what we were going to call this new club. The Hastings guys still wanted to see some connection of [with] their club – it was the original club. So finally, after a hell of a lot of argument, it was decided that the club would be Old Boys Hastings, and that’s where the difference came in, that Old Boys was Hastings High School Old Boys previously, and Hastings was then tacked on the end. Of course in practical terms over the years, the club was always called Old Boys, anyway. But that was the start of the Old Boys Hastings team, or club. Norm Fippard, who had been for many years been a pre-war president of the Hastings High School Old Boys Club, carried on and became president of the new combined club, an office he served for many, many years. This is in 1949, yeah; we started as a combined club in 1949. I can remember, Norman Oliver was I think, the first secretary; I was the first treasurer of course. I can’t remember who the chairman was, but we had some good administrators, including my own father, guys like Snow [?]. And Old Boys did have one or two very good cricketers in their side, too. So that’s the lead up to the Old Boys Hastings Cricket Club. It was the best thing that could ever happen. It was sad to see the old Hastings club really disappear, because it was the first of the Hastings club.

Barry mentioned about Cornwall Park; here. I noted on one of the pages here that in fact in the early 1900s there didn’t appear to be any cricket played here, but there must’ve been a few guys trying for all that; it said that the Hawke’s Bay Association had decided that Cornwall Park was just too rough for cricket, and that if they wanted to have competition cricket here in Hastings, that they would have to find another ground. They went to what was called … I think it was called the Heretaunga ground; but anyway, it was the start of a movement to get a new cricket ground in Hastings. A lot of effort went into raising money, and somebody who must’ve had a great deal of influence persuaded Mr William Nelson of freezing works fame, to grant land which became Nelson Park, and that was the ground for the establishment of cricket in Hastings here in the early 1900s. I can remember playing on Nelson Park myself in the late 1940s; they were still playing on Nelson Park, but it didn’t go for much longer after that.

Right, well I’ve given you the history of Hastings that I know, and Barry’s carried on the Old Boys Hastings side of things, so you know … just seems there’ll be more recent ones now, because I’ve had no connection with the Cornwall Cricket Club as such; but I’ve played, of course, for many years right through to 1980 in the combined club, so I had a long kind of period of play with the Old Boys Hastings Club. So, it’s over to somebody else now.

And a very good member you were as well, Rex; as you said, you played for many years and you were a star in one or two of the games that we played. A very good man to break up a partnership with those slow lobs … lob bowling that you used to do.

It‘d not always be like that.

One thing, your father’s name was?

Claude. Well my father, who was one of the vice-presidents of the Old Boys Hastings Club, gave great service to cricket. He had many years on the Hawke’s Bay Cricket Association management committee. It was at a time when there were two sub-associations, one in Hastings or [and] one in Napier, and chairmanship of the Hawke’s Bay Association had to alternate from year to year. Napier would be one year and Hastings the next year; and my father was one of those chairmen for many years. Lloyd Singleton, one of our early members – his father, Ed Singleton, was another one who was one of the alternate chairmen over the years. But the best thing that could have happened was that they decided to abolish the sub-associations …

Barry: As they have in rugby.

Rex: They strengthened the administration, ‘cause they were always meddling; you’ve got this constant meddling that persisted for years between Hastings and Napier. I don’t know whether it exists to this day, but it used to.

Barry: Rex, you’ve got a great memory – can you just remind us how old you are?

Rex: Well, shortly after Christmas I’ll be ninety-two.

Barry: Wonderful.

Rex: But as I say, I joined cricket as a twelve-year-old. St Johns only had enough people to kind of make up one team to enter the competition here, and somebody – I think the headmaster at St Johns – knew that my father had something to do with cricket and that I had also played cricket in primary school. I can hardly remember that myself. So as a twelve-year-old I got thrust into this First XI, which was the first team that St Johns ever entered in competition cricket; and there’s a photo and you won’t have much trouble recognising me there.

And we’ll get the names?

Oh yes, all the names are there. But that was the first St Johns team to play competition cricket. So you’ve got a bit of extra history there, Jim.

Very good. David, you’ might like to add to this? David Black …

David Black: Certainly happy to do that. I first came into contact with this club when I played for Old Boys Hastings; [microphone interference] I think I played third grade or fourth grade in a team called Giorgi’s Army, which was named after Bruce Giorgi; he was son of Ron Giorgi, the mayor of Hastings at one time. And we had a real mixture of players from different walks of life, which was very successful socially. And I think, Rex, I might’ve played in a game with you for fourth grade Old Boys Hastings at one stage.

I’ve just got some points here that I’ve noted. On Cornwall Park we’ve had first class cricket; we’ve had Central Districts play Auckland and Otago, a huge undertaking by the club, but the club ran a successful day and made a few dollars at the end of it. Some of our famous players have been Ian Smith and Mark Greatbatch, Peter McGlashan; plus we’ve had a huge input into Hawke’s Bay representatives in the last fifty-odd years. I’ve been progressed from being a very average to near hopeless cricketer, into bar manager at the club, or maybe they call it the Club Manager. That was in the mid-1990s, and being full time employed I was able to use some of my experience from England where I was employed at the Bath Cricket Club. I was able to use some of the ideas back here in New Zealand. I even tried afternoon tea between innings, but the New Zealand players didn’t take to that and so it didn’t survive. I remember making cucumber sandwiches for about two hours, and the players didn’t like them.

We’re the biggest cricket club in Hawke’s Bay in regard to numbers, and we’re also the strongest club. For about the last twelve years we have won the Hawke’s Bay Cricket Association’s award for the strongest club; that is, we’ve had more wins than any other club, so that’s always something that is good to win.

Overseas players – we’ve had them from the UK [United Kingdom] come out and play out here, and they’ve all been successful; and we’ve had Cornwall players go to England and play, mainly at Bath Cricket Club. And I can recall one Saturday in Bath when there was a game on at the home ground; I can recall Lincoln Reed who played for us for one year, coming to the park, seeing Peter McGlashan, Josh Tyrrell, Erin McDonald and a couple of other Cornwall players playing on the ground. And Lincoln said to me, “What’s going on? Half the Cornwall Club’s here in England”, and I said, “Well, they’re just enjoying their overseas experience, and they’re all turning out to Bath, which we’re grateful for.”

Women’s cricket – in Hastings there was a team we called the Wandering team in about the late 1990s, and we managed to bring them under our umbrella; and they never won a game for about three seasons. But they certainly enjoyed the game, and we did end up winning the Hawke’s Bay Competition after about seven years.

One of our successes at this club is we have a team called Danger Islanders, and they’re a team of players … they worked for Graeme Lowe, his old tannery business. But they are from the Cook Islands, and they’re from an Island called Danger Island. And they came to us and said, “Can we play under your umbrella?” We decided, “Yes”; and they have been probably the best team for fifteen summers in paying their club subs. [Subscriptions] They enjoy the game, the result is not the be-all and end-all, they’re happy, and they are very supportive of the club, and we’re proud of the Danger Islanders.

The building of this pavilion in the mid-1990s was due to a lot of work by a lot of people – Mike Patton, Lloyd Singleton, Dougal Matheson, Barry Rosenberg, Jim Newbigin and others, all helped to build this pavilion, and Ian Smith tells us regularly that we’ve got the best cricket pavilion for a club in New Zealand – and we all know how often Smithy gets around the country, so we imagine that it’s true. Dougal Matheson started calling the Park here, ‘Lords’ – ‘specially the number one wicket out here. And I remember him one day telling us why it was called ‘Lords’ … the Kent County Under-17 team from England came out and played Hawke’s Bay one day, and their coach was a guy called Neil Taylor who was a first-class cricketer from Kent. And he stood out on the balcony out here and he called it ‘Lords’. And Dougal said, “It’s nothing like Lords.” He said, “I’ve been to Lords; it’s all concrete and bricks.” And Neil Taylor said, “This is typical of an English cricket ground; you’ve got oak trees, you’ve got greenery … just look out there and see how beautiful it is. Our Lords is beautiful too, in its own way, but this is beautiful in another way.” And so ever since then, whenever Dougal’s around, you hear him talking about the ‘Lords’ ground. Not many clubs in New Zealand would be able to skite about that.

Barry: So for my own playing career, I finished competitively in the mid-1980s and then played with my mates down in the … you know, lower grades afterwards. And Mike Patton, who’s you know, [a] character and stalwart of the club, fellow life member – I remember I played quite a bit in the lower grades with him. And he didn’t score that many centuries, you know, when he was playing premier cricket, but I remember he scored four or five in the lower grades. And I remember at Frimley Park one day, he actually almost managed two hundred and hold out to deep square leg. [Chuckle] And I think he was so thirsty that he needed to go and have a can of ale, which he really enjoyed after each game of cricket that he played.

But there’s been a lot of history here, and a lot of things happened over the last thirty years. We’ve been very blessed to’ve had some great characters, and some great quality of people involved in this club which have [has] kept it going when … you know, after playing premier cricket a lot of us went and played in the lower grades, which sort-of added to the enjoyment. And I think it added to the value of the club too, because we were able to pass on a lot of knowledge that we’d got during our premier playing days, to those younger guys who’re coming through and playing at that higher level now. But Father Time catches up with us all, and we all have to end our careers at some stage, and you know, it’s a great pleasure to come back here and look at the players who are playing now, and enjoying the pavilion and the club; and see the success of those who’re playing today; it’s a privilege.

Rex: In October 1911, it was decided to play all matters at Cornwall Park, but the ground in those days was never really good enough for senior cricket. Then, at a specially convened meeting at the Masonic Hotel, June 1912, the president reported that in conjunction with other interested gentlemen he had secured the Heretaunga ground at Hastings, together with an adjacent section to be used as a sports ground especially for cricket, for all time. What was the story behind this announcement? It would appear that many years previously, William Nelson of Tomoana [Freezing Works], with several young sons, had wished to establish a private preparatory school for boys at Hastings. With that idea in mind [he] had invited an English schoolmaster from Warwickshire – a Mr Rainbow, who was father of A I Rainbow, one-time mayor of Hastings – to come to New Zealand to found an institution of this nature. This Mr Rainbow agreed to do [so] providing Mr Nelson presented him with a suitable area of land and also agreed to bear the cost of the buildings. Mr Nelson thereupon purchased a five-acre section where the Nelson cricket ground now stands. So that’s really the end of that, because that was a foundation of Nelson Park, and cricket was played there in the early days, probably when the Hastings Cricket Club was founded, round about that time. So that’s an item of interest for Hastings … Cornwall Park was not good enough to play cricket on in those days so they had to find somewhere else, and Mr William Nelson and Mr Rainbow attended to that. And just as matter of interest, I live in Rainbow Avenue and people say to me, “Oh, that’s a nice name, calling it Rainbow Avenue”. And I say, “Well, it’s not the rainbow you’re imagining – it’s named after Mr A I Rainbow.”

Barry: Well, approximately £5,000 of land was sold to the Hastings Council from the Nelson family, is it?

William Nelson.

David: Did the Nelson family own this block, Rex?

Rex: I wouldn’t know that.

They owned an awful lot of land everywhere.

David: So Jim, has this discussion come up to your expectations in terms of finding out about the history of our club?

Yeah.

Personally, I think it’s hugely valuable, because unless this sort of thing is recorded like you’re doing and like the Knowledge Bank is doing, you know, it’s going to be lost. It’ll never be recorded, and the only way to maintain and preserve something is to record it. I think it’s been a special hour, and I just want to say how grateful I am to be asked, and be a part of it, you know. It’s been great, I’ve really thoroughly enjoyed it.

Barry: Hastings Borough Council bought it £5,800; [an] additional two acres was acquired in 1935.

What about the meetings we use to have in your office in Karamu Road in the early days?

Rex: Yeah, well they were just committee meetings.

Yeah, committee meetings, yeah. We had to be there at a certain time, was it?

Rex: Well, after five o’clock.

Oh yes, after you’d finished your legal business …

Rex: There’s a right of way goes off Karamu Road opposite where McDiarmid’s building used to be – goes down around of the Grand Hotel. And this building I was in, I was at the back of the building that was on the northern side of the right of way, with a window that looked straight down onto an empty section. But underneath on the bottom floor, Murray McKearney had an auction shop at that stage. He was an auctioneer, and he used to come out onto this section area to conduct his auction sales. And I would look out my window directly onto the auction. He was always [chuckle] all the time knocking stuff down to me. [Chuckles] He was pointing up … “Oh, there’s Rex [chuckles] … bid so much, you know, 10/6d” [ten shillings and sixpence] “for Lot …” [laughter] – he was always using me to get higher bids. [Chuckles]

That section was where Square Deal Neil …

Yes, that’s right.

… had his car yard.

Rex: Square Deal Neil – oh, God, who can forget him? [Chuckles] David Keyes and I went on a trip to Australia to see a cricket test. David was then carrying on and going overseas to Britain, but we stopped firstly in Australia, and we went up to Surfers [Paradise]. Surfers was just starting [to acquire some reputation at that stage, but nothing like it is now. And Dave and I were in the pub, and who comes in but Square Deal Neil, [chuckles] as boisterous as ever. So all of a sudden we were great mates. Here was somebody from Hastings who knew you. [Chuckles] I’ve forgotten his wife’s name, do you remember her ..?

I remember her.

She had a kind of a nickname. But anyway, he said, “Hop in the car – we’ll go and see …” his wife. We go out there and he’s got one of these American open cars. [Chuckles] He started it up and took off down the main street of Surfers, straight down the centre of it. He said, “You watch all these bastards get out of the way.” [Chuckles] He drove straight down the centre of the main street [chuckles] at full speed. Oh, God, it was hair raising! We got down to his place where he lived; she wouldn’t let us in the door.

Now, David Keyes of course, was a member of this club.

That’s right.

He was a spin bowler; very good indeed. Played for Hawke’s Bay as well. And he’s a retired chemist.

Rex: David actually played for a representative side against a touring overseas side, one of his first outings as a rep. But a[] long time ago; it was against an English side, I think.

And I think he played against the Fijians as well.

David: And I think Lee Totty might’ve played [??] as well.

So anyway, gentlemen … well, have we covered it all?

Everyone: I would hope so.

Rex: You know, we could mention names like George Sage. Now when the amalgamation between Hastings and Hastings Old Boys was done, George Sage, I think, was … I wouldn’t swear to it … but I think he was the first captain of the new combined club, and he had good players there in the team … Johnny Henderson …

David: He played cricket at Lords.

Rex: George Sage? Oh yes, yes – he was a good cricketer, George. There were guys like that – George Sage, Snow North, Sid Keong, Johnny Henderson; I’m not sure whether Don Brian was there just at that amalgamation point, or whether he came along perhaps the next season – I’m not sure about Don Brian, but of course it was a formidable attack that that team had with Don and Johnny.

Yep, and John Parkes – did he play for Hastings?

Parkes, he was coach. No, he didn’t play for our club, no. Then there was Morris Trenwood who played … I think Napier Boys’ High, played in that team.

David: His son played for England last year.

Rex: Yes – oh, yes, yes. Was it his son or his grandson? I think it might’ve been his grandson, David. Yeah.

I remember coming back from my years in Wellington and wondering which club to join, and I was introduced to Sid Keong; Sid said, “You’re coming to play for Old Boys Hastings”, which I did. And I came to practise and got into my whites for practise, and marched out to the practise wickets out here – we had to set the nets up ourselves – and someone … “God, have you guys got a professional?” [Chuckles] [Of] course in Wellington we had to wear whites for practise. Some of my early days …

Rex: I was here when Parkes was coaching, you know … come over and have net practise here. He supervises.

And my first game was over there; it was against Whakatu-Mahora. Lloyd Singleton’s father, Ed, was the umpire at one end. I appealed about three times in the over for either a catch or an LBW, [leg before wicket] and turned down every time. So I went up to Lloyd, took his glasses off, took my handkerchief out and gave them a good clean, and then put them back. And I always remember Sid … “You’re going to be reported to the Hawke’s Bay Cricket Association.” Well in those days we used to have our drinking just round the corner in Ed’s shed, [chuckle] and I used to bring the two dozen crate of beer around at lunch time, before the game started. In those days we didn’t have fridges, so we put a wet sack over them to keep the beer cold. And we stayed there ‘til fairly late, and Ed became quite jovial, enjoying the day; and he said, “I’ve really enjoyed tonight’s session. My report has been destroyed.” [Chuckles] And we got on like a house on fire from there on in.

Rex: Yes. We used to have those sessions down Len Jones’ place. He made it quite clear that if any phone call came from wives wanting to know where the husbands were, that person would be banned in future. [Chuckles]

David: I can tell a little story. A day before the old pavilion was emptied out ready for demolition, the club was sponsored by a bar in town – I just can’t recall the name of it … opposite the Albert hotel.

Barry: That was the Carlton.

David: The Carlton, was it – it was called something else.

Barry: Bully’s Bar?

David: Something Bar, there was a little guy who ran [it]. Anyway, I got up to make an announcement at the after-match function of all the teams in this bar, and I said, “There’s a working bee tomorrow morning down here at the pavilion. We need some help, so can you come down to help us clean out the pavilion?” And there was a bit of talk, not too much; and then a guy tapped me on the shoulder, a young guy … young player from the club … and he said to me, “What’s a working bee?” I thought, [chuckles] ‘The world’s changed’ [chuckles] – didn’t know what a working bee was.

Rex: Oh, dear me. Talking about pubs, I’d just got married and we bought a house in Ellison Street; it had no driveway. I’d done some edging and put some what was called red metal in those days – it was cheaper than concreting the driveway. Anyway, I’m out there working one Sunday morning, and around comes a guy, Roy LeGeyt. I don’t think anybody would know him, but his sister was Joyce LeGeyt – she became Joyce Harding. Anyway, Roy came around and said, “Look, we’ve got a match on today and we’re one short; would you mind filling in for the day?” Oh, God – I didn’t want to, but I said, “Yes, okay.” It was to be between the Albert Hotel … I forget who the other one was now, but yeah, Albert Hotel was the main team and was providing the grog, which amounted to a big barrel of beer. Out we go to Farndon Park, and the match starts. There’s plenty of drinking done during the day and during the lunch hour and all the rest of it; but finally, at the end of the day, the packing up and taking off didn’t go any further than the Clive Hotel. Somehow or other the Clive Hotel guy got onto this, and then invited the teams – oh, I know the other one, it was Wattie’s playing the Albert Hotel – and he invited everybody over to the Clive pub. So over we went there to the Clive pub, and it’s getting well into the evening at this stage, having a session there. And during the course of whole evening they were running off raffles of beer. Well of course, the ones that were there and supporting these raffles [chuckles] were these same people. I don’t know what time we left there but it certainly would’ve been after midnight, and everybody was still driving. [Chuckle]

Barry: Jim, you know how Rex has given a fantastic sort-of history of the Hastings Club and the Old Boys becoming Old Boys Hastings, if you wanted to replicate that kind of you know, dissertation and history for the Whakatu-Mahora Cricket Club, I reckon the best person you can approach would be Sir Selwyn Cushing. He would be the best guy, because no one else really would have the knowledge that he would have of that club; similar to what Rex gave us today on the Hastings and the Old Boys Cricket Club. So we amalgamated the two clubs, Old Boys Hastings and Whakatu, and we got Rex’s side of it from the Old Boys Hastings side, but you know, maybe there’s a bit of a gap there that you could fill with Sir Selwyn. And he would be happy to do that, Jim, if you approached him, I’m sure. And there’s quite a bit of reference to it in Kane’s book. So I’m just trying to think of a way of maybe completing the whole story from way back, you know? I don’t know anybody else that would be as old as Sir Selwyn that would have that knowledge, because you know, guys like Les Jones are gone; Lee Totty’s gone; but Roger Spencer’s still around. Yeah, but a lot of those guys’ve passed now, that we use to play against, you know, back in the seventies. So just a thought.

Thank you very much. And I want to thank you for coming along and giving your thoughts on the club.

No, it’s been a pleasure … been a pleasure, Jim. It’s very special.

It’s just nice to get these things.