Growing up I had the privilege of playing cricket with Tim McIntosh. He was amazing as a young player. I was not. I bumped into him a while back, and he did not remember me at all.
He and I were involved in a couple of epic partnerships. I vaguely remember (a possibly apocryphal) one where I think we got to about 40 in pretty good time. Then I faced my first ball and got out. It had been my privilege to stand at the non-strikers end and run quick singles at the end of each over. I had the best view of his magnificent innings.
One game we were so dominant that we won a 40 over match by 180 runs. We scored 198, and then bowled them out for 18. I played a big part in that game. I got run out for 1 and was feeling sick, and didn’t end up fielding.
But being associated with success is something that we can gain a degree of pleasure from. It is the same pleasure that I got while getting score updates off my phone from the Auckland vs Northern Districts game 2 weeks ago.
I am a proud Aucklander, but realistically I have done very little to contribute to the playing ability of my team. I have been to a few games at Eden Park Outer Oval, Colin Maiden Park and even one at North Harbour Stadium. I have even once bought a sausage at a fundraising barbeque for the Brown Caps. But other than these gestures I have done very little.
And yet when I saw that Auckland had beaten the old enemy, there was a sense of satisfaction. It was like I had personally achieved one over the bovine botherers.
And really it had nothing to do with me, but I guarantee that my cellphone was tuned into blackcaps.co.nz last Monday to see how we would fare against Canterbury at Rangiora. I was hoping that somehow that I would get to watch the boys in blue chalk up a win: from the non-strikers end.